- Click here for explanation of classification scheme.

To evaluate whether young girls' eating in the absence of hunger was:

1. stable across a 2-year period in middle childhood,
2. associated with an increased risk of overweight,
3. could be predicted by parents' use of restriction in child feeding

At the time of enrollment girls were:

• preschool eligible,
• lived with both biological parents,
• did not have severe food allergies, chronic medical problems, or dietary restrictions affecting food intake

Participants were girls and their parents who were taking part in an ongoing longitudinal project on the development of food-intake controls during middle childhood.

Recruitment

Families recruited for participation through flyers and newspaper advertisements that described the study's focus as girls' nutrition, early experience, and development.

Design

Parents' reports of restricting their daughters' access to foods were measured with the Restriction Subscale of the Child Feeding Questionnaire (8 items measuring parents' attempts to control their daughters' eating by restricting access to foods).

Girls were given an ample lunch. Following the lunch they were asked how hungry they were. Following this, the girls were allowed to play with toys or snack on foods made available while the researcher did some work in the adjacent room. The researcher left the room for 10 minutes. When the researcher returned the girl was interviewed about whether her parents let her have the foods provided and how she felt about her eating.

For analysis girls were split into two groups:

• low intake group
• high intake group

Blinding used (if applicable)

none

Statistical Analysis

Logistic regression was used to determine whether being overweight at both ages was predicted by having stable membership in either the low-intake (value = 0) or high-intake (value = 1) group.

Timing of Measurements

Ages 5 and 7

Dependent Variables

• Height and weight (BMI)--overweight defined as >85th percentile for age 
• Low versus high snack intake following meal

Independent Variables

• Parent responses on Restriction Subscale of the Child Feeding Questionnaire

Control Variables

 

Initial N: 196

Attrition (final N): 191

Age: 7.3 ± 0.3 years

Ethnicity: not reported

SES: family incomes, 29% were <$35000, 35% were $35000–$50000, and 36% were >$50000

Other relevant demographics:

Location: Pennsylvania

Location:

 

Parental Restriction

Parents in the study indicated less restriction of girls at age 7 than age 5 (p<.01).

Eating in the Absense of Hunger Across Time

Girls who were low intake snackers at age 5 were more likely to be low intake snackers at age 7. The same pattern was true for girls in the high intake snack group (X² = 16.3, P < 0.001).

Relation Between Eating in the Absence of Hunger and Overweight

Although relatively few girls were overweight at both time periods (n=19), Girls in the high-intake group in the absence of hunger at ages 5 and 7 years were 4.6 times as likely to be overweight at both times as girls who ate little in the absence of hunger (p<.01).

Predicting Eating in the Absence of Hunger

Researchers examined whether eating in the absence of hunger at age 7 was related to:

• eating in the absence of hunger at age 5
• level of parental restriction

They found that for each unit that parents' reports of restriction in child feeding at age 5 years increased girls were 2.1 times as likely to eat in the absence of hunger at age 7 years (p<.01). This relationship held even after controlling for both the girls' BMI at age 5 and their snack food intake in the absence of hunger at age 5.

Eating in the absence of hunger was a stable behavioral characteristic over the 2-year period for most girls.

The parents' use of restrictive feeding practices when the girls were 5 years of age predicted eating in the absence of hunger at age 7, providing additional evidence for environmental effects on the developing controls of food intake in girls. This indicates that parents' use of restrictive feeding practices is not effective in limiting children's food intake and can actually promote children's consumption of the restricted foods, even in the absence of hunger.

In summary, individual differences in young girls' eating in response to palatable foods in the absence of hunger were:

1. stable across time
2. associated with an increased risk of overweight
3. predicted by parents' reports of restrictive feeding practices.

Government:	NIH
Industry:	National Dairy Council Commodity Group:

Strengths:

• Well designed

Limitations:

• Study families do not appear to be representative of the larger population, this limits generalizability