Characterizing Top-down Dimensions of Appetite Self-regulation Among Preschoolers
Temple University
Summary
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.
Description
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…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 4–6 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: 1. Child ages 4 to 6 years of age 2. Caregiver reporting primary responsibility for child feeding outside of childcare 3. Caregiver legal guardian Exclusion Criteria: 1. Caregiver \<18 years of age 2. Child major food allergies 3. Child medication use, developmental disability, or medical conditions known to affect food intake and/or growth; color blindness 4. Child in foster care
Interventions
- OtherExecutive 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.
Location
- Temple UniversityPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania