Time spent looking at food during a delay of gratification task is positively associated with children's consumption at ad libitum laboratory meals.

Time spent looking at food during a delay of gratification task is positively associated with children's consumption at ad libitum laboratory meals. Appetite. 2019 Jul 02;141:104341 Authors: Lundquist E, Austen M, Bermudez M, Rubin C, Bruce AS, Masterson TD, Keller KL Abstract Greater ability to delay gratification for an immediate food reward may protect against the development of obesity. However, it is not known if the behaviors children exhibit during a delay of gratification task are related to overeating in other contexts. The purpose of this analysis was to assess the relationship between observed child coping strategies during a delay of gratification task and laboratory intake from ad libitum test-meals. The sample consisted of 40, 7-9 year old children (40% (N = 16 with overweight/obesity). Across 5 laboratory visits, children consumed 3 identical test-meals presented after varying exposure conditions (i.e., no exposure, exposure to food commercials, exposure to toy commercials). On the first visit, children were recorded during a delay of gratification task which was coded for three behavioral themes: looking at vs. away from food, talking vs. staying silent, and fidgeting vs. sitting still. Pearson correlations and multiple regressions were run to look at the relationships between coping strategies and test-meal intake. Time spent looking away from food was negatively associated with ad libitum food consumption at the...
Source: Appetite - Category: Nutrition Authors: Tags: Appetite Source Type: research