Food for Thought: Executive Functioning Around Eating Among Children

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Scientific knowledge of the cognitive-developmental processes that serve to support children's appetite self-regulation are surprisingly limited. This investigation will provide new scientific directions for obesity prevention by elucidating cognitive-developmental influences on young children's ability to make healthy food choices and eat in moderation.

Detailed Description
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Appetite self-regulation (ASR) has been described as involving children's use of eating-specific, top-down cognitive processes to moderate bottom-up biological drives to eat. Much of the research to date on ASR has focused on the role of bottom-up drives in shaping children's behavioral susceptibility to obesity. Alternatively, little is known about the cognitive-developmental processes that shape children's ability to make healthy food choices and eat in moderation during early childhood. The goal of this exploratory investigation is to produce rigorous evidence of cognitive developmental influences on healthy eating behaviors and weight status during preschool through the development of new measures of top-down ASR. Participants will be 150 preschoolers and their primary caregiver. Existing measures of executive functioning in children will be adapted to create new measures of eating-specific, top-down ASR. Associations with children's eating behaviors, body mass index z-scores, food parenting will be assessed.

Official Title
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Characterizing Top-down Dimensions of Appetite Self-regulation Among Preschoolers

Conditions
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Self-regulation, Appetitive Behavior, Eating Behavior, Child Obesity

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Executive functioning observational tasks


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Child ages 4 to 6 years of age Caregiver reporting primary responsibility for child feeding outside of childcare Caregiver legal guardian Exclusion Criteria: Caregiver <18 years of age Child major food allergies Child medication use, developmental disability, or medical conditions known to affect food intake and/or growth Child in foster care

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 4 Years
Maximum Age: 6 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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Arms and Interventions

| Intervention/Treatment |
| --- |
|Other: Executive functioning observational tasks|Interventions take place solely at the measurement level, where children will be seen in observational tasks of general executive functioning and executive functioning around eating in which various food and non-food stimuli are presented and children's responses to task instructions are recorded.|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Food choice | Children's forced-choice selection of fruits, vegetables, and water over alternatives at a meal | Assessed at 1 of 2 study visits over 2 weeks | 
| Eating in the absence of hunger | Children's intake of palatable foods following a standard meal | Assessed at 1 of 2 study visits over 2 weeks | 
| Body mass index z-score | Age and sex specific z-score using CDC reference data | Assessed at 1 of 2 study visits over 2 weeks |