Family Meal Duration and Children's Eating Behavior

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The goal of this study is to test whether a longer meal duration could improve the diet quality of children. To answer this question we want to take an experimental approach by implementing a longer family meal duration to examine differences in children's eating behavior. The family dinner within a laboratory setting will be video taped and the main outcome is children's fruit and vegetables consumption.

Detailed Description
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Parent-child pairs have two dinner in a laboratory setting. The study design is a within-subject design: In the control condition they have as much time as they usual. In the intervention condition they have 50% more time than usual. Order of the two condition is counter balanced. The lab dinner reflects a typical German dinner which consists of bread, cheese, cold meat and fruits and vegetables. Additionally a dessert is served after the main meal. The foods served reflect food preferences of the child. All dinners are video taped. Key outcome variables are consumption of fruits and vegetables, dessert, eating rate and amount time engaged in positive and negative social interaction

Conditions
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Feeding Behavior, Eating, Child Behavior, Family Relations

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Longer meal duration


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: children and their nutritional gatekeeper Exclusion Criteria: food allergies participants follow special diet

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 6 Years
Maximum Age: 10 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Crossover Assignment
Masking: Triple


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Longer meal duration<br>Families eat longer as they usually do | Behavioral: Longer meal duration<br>* Participants have 50% more time to eat than usual<br>|
| No Intervention: Usual meal duration<br>Families eat as long as they usually do | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Food consumption | The lab dinner is video taped. Consumption of fruits, vegetables, bread, cheese, cold meat and dessert (cookies or pudding), drinks (water, or milk, or juice) are coded by two independent rater. | Food intake is measured during the lab meal | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Social interactions: positive and negative communication | The lab dinner is video taped. Social interactions are coded according to the ABC family mealtime coding system by Fiese, Winter & Botti, 2011. | Social interaction is measured during the lab meal | 
| Eating rate | Bites per minute coded from video tapes | From the start to the end of the meal (about 20-30 minutes) | 
| Hunger | Hunger rating scale (ranging from 1= I am really hungry to 5 = I am not hungry at all) | Participants filled out a questionnaire 5 minutes after the lab dinner | 
| Atmosphere | Atmosphere rating scale (ranging from 1= very negative to 5 = very positive) | Participants filled out a questionnaire 5 minutes after the lab dinner |