NCT02354157

The Nutritional Effect of Parental Use of Food as a Reward

Field Observation of Adverse Nutritional Effect of Parental Use of Food as a Reinforcer for Non-food Related Behavior

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 207 (actual)
• Sponsor: McGill University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 6 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Control rules are common parental practices that use food as reward to encourage children to conduct parents' preferred behaviors. This field observational study aims to examine whether control rules are associated with children's increased fat, carbohydrate and total energy intake in everyday eating, and whether this effect is moderated by individual differences in sensitivity to reward, and by gender differences.

Detailed description

Control rules are parental practices that use food as an instrumental reinforcer to encourage children to behave in a normative manner in non-food domains. Since food high in fat or sugar is usually chosen as a reinforcer for control rules, these rules may lead to children's increased preference and every day intake of food high in sugar/fat. Research propositions were examined in 207 six to twelve-year-old children (97 boys and 110 girls). Their parents reported the children's everyday dietary intake through a food frequency questionnaire, and provided information regarding the children's sensitivity to rewards as well as an indication of how frequently they enforce family control rules.

Conditions

• Children's Nutrition Intake

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	no intervention	no intervention

Timeline

• Start date: 2013-03-01
• Primary completion: 2013-07-01
• Completion: 2013-07-01
• First posted: 2015-02-03
• Last updated: 2015-02-03