Analyzing the Effects of Food Advertising on Child Eating Behaviors
Open Access
- Author:
- Solaimanian, Parisa
- Area of Honors:
- Nutritional Sciences
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Kathleen Loralee Keller, Thesis Supervisor
Alison D Gernand, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Child obesity
Eating behaviors
Food advertising
Brand awareness
Maternal BMI
Sex differences - Abstract:
- Child obesity is a public health concern as obesity rates are continuing to rise worldwide. To design interventions that promote healthy eating habits in children, we must understand the factors that contribute to eating behaviors, food preferences, and child obesity. Research suggests that genetic and environmental factors interact to cause child obesity. In terms of environmental factors, food marketing is widespread and promotes the consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods; some children may be more susceptible to the effects of food advertising than others. Brand awareness is also crucial to understanding the influences on children’s food preferences and consumption; studies demonstrate that brand awareness may create emotional attachments and impact eating patterns in children. The data for this current thesis was collected as part of a larger study called Project REACH; the purpose was to study how advertisements impact what children eat and their decisions about food. We specifically aimed to understand the relationship between child brand awareness and eating in the absence of hunger (EAH), the relationship between child brand awareness and maternal BMI, and sex differences in brand awareness. This study was based on 57 (28 male, 29 female) 7-9-year-old children and their parents who attended five laboratory visits. Some main measurements in the study were on body composition, food preferences, hunger levels, amount of food consumption, and brand awareness of food and toys using a survey we created. During visits, children were exposed to advertisements (either food, toy, or control), and were then given a test meal; they would later watch another advertisement, and then were given snacks to eat to assess EAH. The results of the study show an interesting correlation between food brand awareness and EAH, where higher food brand awareness is related to less food consumption in EAH (r = -0.3, P = 0.02), contrary to our prediction. This may be due to the notion that children who are more brand-aware may make more conscious decisions about food. There was no correlation between toy and overall brand awareness and EAH (P > 0.05). Additionally, there was no significant relationship between child brand awareness and maternal BMI (P > 0.05). Further, there were no significant sex differences for both brand awareness and EAH (P > 0.05). However, a significant interesting finding from the study shows that girls and boys respond differently to advertising cues; girls consumed more kcals during EAH following food advertisements, and boys consumed more kcals during EAH following toy advertisements (F = 4.0, P < 0.05). We hope to further explore the role of gender and responses to advertising cues in future studies, along with the importance of brand awareness from a public health perspective. Given that the results of this study are inconsistent with other previous literature, future research should also focus on conducting similar studies with a larger, more diverse sample.