It's always snack time: An investigation of event scripts in young children.

Abstract

This study examined whether young children include eating in their cognitive scripts for various events, and whether food-related scripts are associated with body mass index (BMI) percentile. Data were collected in a structured interview format. Participants, recruited from area preschools and day cares, provided a four-activity sequence for each of three events, and responses were recorded verbatim. Forty-four children (45% female) participated, with an average BMI percentile of 73.3% (SD = 25.9). Data were binarily coded to indicate whether each response was food-related. Frequencies were obtained, and responses were correlated with BMI percentile. Over 22% of the activities in the children’s scripts involved food. The number of food-related activities reported was positively correlated with children’s BMI percentile (r = 0.53, p = 0.03). Results provide preliminary evidence that food features prominently in young children’s event scripts and that children with higher BMI percentiles may possess scripts that feature more food-related themes. Future researchers should investigate the causal nature of this relationship.

Family food talk, child eating behavior, and maternal feeding practices

“…Yet, child food talk was unrelated to BMIz score. This finding is inconsistent with one prior study that found positive associations between parent-reported child BMI and the frequency of food-related mentions in a semi-structured interview with 4- to 6-year old children (Musher-Eizenman, Marx, & Taylor, 2015; Syrad et al, 2016), perhaps due to methodological differences in that we had an objective measure of child BMIz and observed food talk in a naturalistic setting versus in an interview. It may also be that the types of food talk we observed in the current study are more distally related to child weight outcomes than they are to child eating behavior as measured by the CEBQ, and that associations may emerge over time.…”

Sweet Christmas: Do overweight and obese children associate special events more frequently with food than normal weight children?

“…Fewer than 10% of children's associations were related to food, and associations with other stimuli, activities or states were much more frequent (for example, Christmas was associated with going to church, little lights, family gatherings). This is low in comparison to the study of Musher-Eizenman et al (2015) who found that nearly a quarter of the activities mentioned by 4e6 year old children in their description of events were food-related.…”

“…The present study examines whether children spontaneously associate special events and festivities with food. In a previous study, Musher-Eizenman, Marx, and Taylor (2015) found that young children between the ages of 4 and 6 years spontaneously mentioned food when they described events such as having a playdate, going to the movie theatre or to a sporting event. Moreover, children's BMI percentile was moderately positively correlated with the number of food-related responses in their descriptions.…”