Children's Nutrition Intake
Conditions
Keywords
children dietary pattern, control rules, instrumental learning, food reinforcement
Brief summary
Control rules are common parental practices that use food as reward to encourage children to conduct parents' preferred behaviors. This field observational study aims to examine whether control rules are associated with children's increased fat, carbohydrate and total energy intake in everyday eating, and whether this effect is moderated by individual differences in sensitivity to reward, and by gender differences.
Detailed description
Control rules are parental practices that use food as an instrumental reinforcer to encourage children to behave in a normative manner in non-food domains. Since food high in fat or sugar is usually chosen as a reinforcer for control rules, these rules may lead to children's increased preference and every day intake of food high in sugar/fat. Research propositions were examined in 207 six to twelve-year-old children (97 boys and 110 girls). Their parents reported the children's everyday dietary intake through a food frequency questionnaire, and provided information regarding the children's sensitivity to rewards as well as an indication of how frequently they enforce family control rules.
Interventions
OTHERno intervention
no intervention
Sponsors
Dalhousie University
McGill University
Study design
Observational model
COHORT
Time perspective
CROSS_SECTIONAL
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
6 Years to 12 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* participants have 6-12 years old children
Exclusion criteria
* N.A.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Food Frequency Questionnaire | last month recall | A web-based Food Frequency Questionnaire was used to aske participants' parents to recall their children's food intake over the last month based on a list of 136 individual food items or food clusters, which covered eight categories of food and beverages. For each individual food item or cluster, participants were asked to indicate how frequently their children consumed that food and the typical portion size. |
Outcome results
None listed