High food motivation among children is trait-like and increases risks of unhealthy dietary intake and obesity. Scientific knowledge of how parenting can best support healthy eating habits and growth among children who are predisposed to overeating is surprisingly limited. This investigation will identify supportive food parenting approaches for obesity prevention that address the needs of highly food motivated children.
High levels of food motivation among young children are heritable, track over time, and associated with elevated risks of unhealthy eating and obesity. Despite significant growth of family-based obesity prevention efforts, the evidence base is remarkably scant on parenting highly food motivated children to prevent obesity and poor dietary outcomes. The goal of this investigation is to generate a robust basic science evidence for parenting highly food motivated children to prevent excessive dietary intakes and body mass index (BMI) gains during the preschool years. Using a prospective cohort design, this investigation follow 205 caregiver/child dyads over 18 months as children transition from preschool to elementary school, when significant numbers of children begin to experience problems of poor diet quality and obesity. Children with varying food motivation will be recruited to understand whether highly food motivated children have different needs than other children. A multi-method approach will use state-of-the-art measures, including ecological momentary assessment, to comprehensively investigate the amount, types, and consistency of food parenting practices (i.e., specific, goal-oriented behaviors) needed to prevent food motivated behaviors, excessive dietary intake, and BMI gains in children. Specifically, the role of structure (i.e., theoretically supportive) and its differentiation from more coercive types of food parenting control will be comprehensively characterized.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
The only interventions are at the measurement level and consist of two behavioral protocols designed to assess children's eating behavior, where food stimuli are provided and children's behavioral responses are recorded.
Temple University - Center for Obesity Research and Education
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
RECRUITINGUSDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center
Houston, Texas, United States
RECRUITINGExcessive dietary intakes
Indicators: SFAS intakes and meal/snack sizes estimated from 24-hour dietary recalls
Time frame: Baseline, 18 months
BMI change
% of the 50th percentile per age- and sex-specific CDC reference values for BMI on a log scale
Time frame: Baseline, 18 months
Observed food motivated behaviors
Indicators: Eating in the absence of hunger and relative reinforcing value of food
Time frame: Baseline, 18 months
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