Changing children's eating behaviour - A review of experimental research

The interest in children's eating behaviours and how to change them has been growing in recent years. This review examines the following questions: What strategies have been used to change children's eating behaviours? Have their effects been experimentally demonstrated? And, are the effec...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Appetite 2017-06, Vol.113, p.327-357
Main Authors: DeCosta, Patricia, Møller, Per, Frøst, Michael Bom, Olsen, Annemarie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Behavior Control - methods
Behavior Control - psychology
Behaviour
Child
Child, Preschool
Children
Choice Behavior
Cooking - methods
Eating
Eating - psychology
Experimental
Feeding Behavior - psychology
Female
Food Preferences - psychology
Gardening - methods
Health Education - methods
Humans
Infant
Intervention
Male
Preference
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The interest in children's eating behaviours and how to change them has been growing in recent years. This review examines the following questions: What strategies have been used to change children's eating behaviours? Have their effects been experimentally demonstrated? And, are the effects transient or enduring? Medline and Cab abstract (Ovid) and Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) were used to identify the experimental studies. A total of 120 experimental studies were identified and they are presented grouped within these 11 topics; parental control, reward, social facilitation, cooking programs, school gardens, sensory education, availability and accessibility, choice architecture and nudging, branding and food packaging, preparation and serving style, and offering a choice. In conclusion, controlling strategies for changing children's eating behaviour in a positive direction appear to be counterproductive. Hands-on approaches such as gardening and cooking programs may encourage greater vegetable consumption and may have a larger effect compared to nutrition education. Providing children with free, accessible fruits and vegetables have been experimentally shown to positively affect long-term eating behaviour. The authors recommend future research to examine how taste and palatability can positively affect children's attitudes and eating behaviour.
ISSN:0195-6663
1095-8304
DOI:10.1016/j.appet.2017.03.004