Effects of social contexts on overweight and normal-weight children's food intake

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of peer influence on the food intake of overweight and normalweight children. A mixed factorial design was employed, with children's weight status (overweight vs. normal-weight) as a between-subjects factor, and social context (alone vs. group) as a withinsubjects factor. A total of 32 children (n=17 overweight and n=15 normal-weight) between the ages of 6-10 years participated in this study. Findings from the random regression model indicated that overweight children ate more when alone than when in the presence of other youth, while in contrast normal-weight ate slightly more with others than they did when alone. Therefore, social context differentially impacts the eating behavior of overweight and normal-weight children. This study underscores differences in responses to the social environment between overweight and nonoverweight youths, and suggests that social involvement may be an important tool in treatment and prevention programs for overweight and obesity.

A Review of Environmental Influences on Food Choices

“…However, the presence of others has been shown to impact the eating of overweight and normal-weight individuals differently, possibly due to concerns about weight stigmatization. In contrast to normal-weight individuals, overweight individuals have been found to eat less in the presence of others at a normal weight and more in the presence of other overweight individuals [49,52,53]. One illustrative experiment provided overweight and nonoverweight school-age children (6 to 10 years) an unlimited amount of pizza and access to several board games for 45 min in group and individual conditions [52].…”

The role of familiarity on modeling of eating and food consumption in children

“…However, questions remain about the extent to which social influences also impact children's food consumption (i.e., how much they eat). Some recent findings indicate that the presence of others do impact children's eating (Salvy, Coelho, Kieffer, & Epstein, 2007;Salvy, Kieffer, & Epstein, In Press;Salvy, Romero, Paluch, & Epstein, 2007). However, it is unknown whether the relationship between co-eaters impacts children's food intake and/or their matching of food consumption.…”

La red social del adolescente: la influencia de la amistad en el desarrollo de hábitos obesogénicos

“…En esta misma línea y probablemente debido a la estigmatización social y al querer causar una buena impresión se producen efectos similares de variabilidad dependiendo del estado de peso del niño y de sus colegas. De esta forma, al igual que el efecto producido en adolescentes, se ha podido comprobar cómo infantes a estudio de entre 6 y 10 años con sobrepeso comen más cuando están solos que cuando están con desconocidos, a diferencia del individuo con peso normal, que come igual independientemente del lazo de unión (31) .…”