Family Food Talk and Obesity Risk in Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Preteens

 描述（由申请人提供）：儿童肥胖是一个重大的公共卫生问题，17%的美国儿童超重或肥胖。一旦肥胖形成，它会延续到儿童期和成年期。父母在塑造孩子的饮食行为，饮食摄入量和最终肥胖风险方面至关重要。研究表明，家庭用餐时间对预防儿童肥胖和养成健康的饮食习惯至关重要，但研究结果并不一致。不一致的关联的一个原因可能是，围绕食物的亲子互动的很大一部分发生在用餐时间之外，并且历史上没有被测量。近年来，用餐时间以外的饮食，特别是放学后吃零食的情况有所增加，被认为是导致儿童体重过度增加的原因，也是儿童围绕食物和饮食进行社会化的潜在重要背景。然而，人们对以下方面知之甚少：1）围绕食物的自然主义亲子互动（即，“食物养育”）; 2）儿童因素如何（例如，坚持要求零食）可能有贡献;或3）进餐时间以外的食物相互作用如何在整个发展过程中变化。了解用餐时间以外的食物谈话为未来预防儿童肥胖的干预发展带来了希望。拟议的工作还将填补一个关键的方法空白，因为现有的研究依赖于父母自我报告的喂养，观察到的结构化实验室互动或家庭用餐时间。之前没有研究观察到父母与孩子在两餐之间谈论食物与儿童肥胖风险的关系。利用一项正在进行的横断面研究，我们建议分析自然主义的亲子互动周围的食物和饮食在放学后的时间， 多方法评估儿童饮食行为、饮食摄入、父母喂养方式、家庭进餐时间相互作用和儿童肥胖。我们将使用话语分析和行为编码的方法来评估自然发生的父母和孩子谈论食物和饮食的过程和内容，基于使用语言环境分析（LENA）系统的音频记录。我们的团队率先使用这个系统来研究育儿，并且是评估食物育儿和儿童饮食行为的独特专家。我们的目标是，在有12-24个月（n=40），3-5岁（n=40）和10-13岁（n=60）儿童的家庭中：目标1。评估频率，话语特征，和自然主义的亲子互动涉及食物或进餐时间以外的饮食（“食物谈话”）的情绪基调，以及这些是否因年龄而异。目标2.评估食物谈话是否与父母报告的儿童饮食行为和儿童饮食摄入有关。目标3：评估食物谈话是否与父母报告的喂养方式和观察到的家庭用餐时间互动有关。目标4。评估食物谈话是否与儿童肥胖指标（BMIz，皮肤褶皱和体重状况）以及六个月期间BMIz的变化率相关。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Childhood obesity is a significant public health problem with 17% of US children being overweight or obese. Once established, obesity tracks into later childhood and adulthood. Parents are vital in shaping child eating behavior, dietary intake, and ultimately obesity risk. Research implicates family mealtimes as important for child obesity prevention and development of healthy eating habits, but findings are not consistent. One reason for the inconsistent associations may be that a substantial proportion of parent-child interactions around food occur outside the mealtime context and have historically been unmeasured. Eating outside of mealtimes, particularly snacking after school hours has increased in recent years and is proposed as contributing to excessive child weight gain and a potentially important context for child socialization around food and eating. Yet, little is known about: 1) naturalistic parent-child interactions around food (i.e., "food parenting") outside of mealtimes; 2) how child factors (e.g., persistence in requesting snacks) may contribute; or 3) how food interactions outside of mealtimes vary across development. Understanding food talk outside of mealtimes holds promise for future intervention development to prevent childhood obesity. The proposed work would also fill a critical methodological gap, as extant studies rely on parents' self-reported feeding, observed structured laboratory interactions, or family mealtimes. No prior study has observed parent-child food talk between meals in relation to child obesity risk. Leveraging an ongoing cross-sectional study, we propose to analyze naturalistic parent-child interactions around food and eating during after school hours in relation to detailed, multi-method assessments of child eating behavior, dietary intake, and parent feeding style, family mealtime interactions, and child adiposity. We will use discourse-analysis and behavioral-coding approaches to assess the process and content of naturally occurring parent and child talk about food and eating based on audio recordings using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system. Our team has pioneered use of this system to study parenting and is uniquely expert in assessing food parenting and child eating behavior. Our aims are, in families with children ages 12-24 months (n=40), 3-5 years (n=40), and 10-13 years (n=60): Aim 1. To assess frequency, discourse features, and emotional tone of naturalistic parent-child interactions involving food or eating outside of mealtime ("food talk"), and whether these differ by age. Aim 2. To assess whether food talk is associated with parent-reported child eating behaviors and child dietary intake. Aim 3. To assess whether food talk is associated with parent-reported feeding styles and observed family mealtime interactions. Aim 4. To assess whether food talk is associated with child adiposity indicators (BMIz, skinfolds, and weight status) and with rate of change in BMIz across a six-month period.