Peer Influence on Eating Behavior in Overweight and Normal Weight Youths

描述（由申请人提供）：同伴对超重和正常体重青少年饮食行为的影响。虽然大多数饮食都发生在社会环境中，但同伴影响对儿童饮食的影响尚未成为系统实验研究的对象。本实验旨在评估同龄人对超重和正常体重青少年食物摄入和食物选择的影响。将体重状况、性别和同伴的体重状况作为中间因素，将社会背景（单独与双组）作为内部因素，用于比较青少年单独和有同伴在场时的食物消费。预测社会条件和同伴体重状况都会对超重参与者的食物选择和食物消费产生影响。更具体地说，超重的参与者会选择更有营养的食物，并在有一个更瘦的同伴在场时抑制他们的整体食物摄入量，但在有一个超重的同伴在场或独自一人时，他们会选择更有热量的食物，消耗更多的卡路里。考虑到在体重相关问题上有充分记录的性别差异，我们预测女性参与者在同伴面前更有可能抑制自己的饮食。预计这种影响在超重的女孩身上会更加明显，她们会试图避免“吃得太多”的耻辱。本研究旨在了解超重和非超重青少年对社会和食物环境的反应差异。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Peer Influence on Eating Behavior in Overweight and Normal Weight Youths. Although most eating occurs in a social context, the effects of peer influence on child eating have not been the object of systematic experimental study. The proposed experiment assesses the effects of peers on food intake and food choices in overweight and normal weight youths. A mixed design with weight status, gender and peer's weight status as between factors and the social context (alone versus dyad) as within factor will be used to compare youths' food consumption when alone and when in the presence of a peer. The prediction is that both the social condition and the peer weight status will have an impact on overweight participants' food selection and food consumption. More specifically, overweight participants will select more nutrient-dense food items and suppress their overall food intake in the presence of a leaner peer, but will select more calorie dense foods and consume more kilocalories in the presence of an overweight peer or when alone. Given the well documented sex differences in weight-related issues, 1, 2 we predict that female participants will be more likely to suppress their eating in the presence of a peer. It is expected that this effect will be more pronounced in overweight girls, who would attempt to avoid the stigma of "eating too much". This study is designed to understand differences in responses to the social and food environment between overweight and non overweight youths.