1-017 - Candies, Fast Foods, and Smart Devices: Child, Parent, and Environmental Factors Related to Children’s Food Preferences and Eating

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Childhood obesity is a global public health crisis (e.g., Karnik & Kanekar, 2013), and one strategy to address this complex issue is to identify factors that contribute to children’s healthy or unhealthy eating habits. This symposium features 3 papers that collectively examine the roles of parent, child, and environmental or sociocultural factors (e.g., living in poverty or a culture of fast food restaurants and mobile media or Smart devices). Paper 1 explores potential links between parent and child temperament traits, parent anxiety/stress, and sociodemographic risk factors with child food preferences and eating behaviors. Results suggests that impulsive children and those living in poverty prefer and eat more candies over natural sweets (grapes). And parental influences on child eating are likely through parent characteristics other than parent temperament. Paper 2 sheds light on parent characteristics that may be associated with child eating behaviors by examining “food parenting” or feeding practices. Results suggest that while sociodemographic factors were unrelated to food parenting, parents’ weight concerns and weight status were related to their feeding practices. Paper 3 further explores parents’ influence on child eating by examining parent-child interactions during mealtimes. Parents’ use of mobile media or Smart devices were observed during meals with their children at a fast food restaurant in Italy. Findings show mobile media usage differed by caregivers’ age and gender. Collectively, the papers highlight the roles of child temperament, parent characteristics and parenting practices, and environmental and sociocultural factors that could impact the development of children's food preferences and eating habits.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chair

• Jeffrey Liew, Texas A&M University

Individual Presentations

• Relations between Parent Temperament and Anxiety, Child Temperament, and Child Food Preference and Eating Behaviors - Presenting Author: Zhiqing Zhou, Texas A&M University; Michelle SooHoo, Texas A&M University; Qing Zhou, University of California, Berkeley; Marisol Perez, Arizona State University; Jeffrey Liew, Texas A&M University

• Parental Predictors of Food Parenting Practices: SES and Parental Weight and Dieting Status - Presenting Author: Lindsey Roberts, Bowling Green State University; Lynnel Goodman, Bowling Green State University; Dara Musher-Eizenman, Bowling Green State University

• An International Perspective on Caregiver Mobile Device Use during Fast Food Meals - Presenting Author: Allison Kiefner-Burmeister, University of Findlay; Sarah Elizabeth Domoff, Central Michigan University; Jenny Radesky, University of Michigan