Context matters: Self‐regulation of healthy eating at different eating occasions

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to study the extent of change in parents' fruit and vegetable consumption during a period when their children participate in a school-based healthy eating intervention. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 256 12-year-old Danish schoolchildren took part in a text-message feedback intervention promoting fruit and vegetable consumption. One parent of each child filled out self-administered questionnaires at three points during the 40-week study period. In the questionnaire, stated consumption, perceived influence factors on their consumption and self-efficacy and self-regulation were measured. Findings – Only half of the parents stated that they met the “five a day” target. These parents reported good availability of fruit and vegetables in their household, high consumption among their friends and frequent exercise and they were characterised by high self-efficacy levels. Stated consumption increased during the period of the intervention targeted at their children. Parents that reported an increase had, at the start of the intervention, reported low levels of consumption, lack of encouragement to eat healthy at their workplace and lower autonomous self-regulation. Research limitations/implications – The consumption data is limited to self-report. Practical implications – The results indicate that parents can be influenced indirectly by school-based interventions targeted at their children. Future interventions should include the family with the intent to support positive interaction that might further promote and sustain healthy eating habits. Originality/value – The study considers the possible effects school interventions targeting children may have on the immediate family, an aspect generally overlooked in school-based health initiatives.

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Parental feeding practices and their relation to child eating behavior: Problems for explanation / Prácticas alimentarias parentales y su relación con la conducta alimentaria infantil: Problemas para la explicación

Revista Mexicana de Trastornos Alimentarios/Mexican Journal of Eating Disorders ◽

10.22201/fesi.20071523e.2018.1.450 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 129-142

Author(s):

Marina Liliana González-Torres ◽

Cynthia Nayeli Esqueda Sifuentes ◽

María De los Ángeles Vacio Muro

Keyword(s):

Eating Behavior ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Food Preferences ◽

Feeding Practices ◽

Future Research ◽

Parental Feeding Practices ◽

Parental Feeding ◽

Child Eating ◽

Infant Feeding Behavior

Abstract Parental feeding practices influence the learning of healthy eating since childhood. But the lack of clear descriptions and inconsistent terminology of such practices hampers the understanding of their influence on such learning. From a selected review of scientific articles that included descriptions of parental feeding practices and relationships with any aspect of children's eating behavior, we analyzed the behavioral descriptions stated in literature during the last decade (2006-2016) with the purpose to clarify relations among these and the children’s eating behavior. The results were categorized based on the relationships between feeding practices and the challenges in infant feeding behavior such as acceptance of new foods, development of food preferences, and food self-regulation. The results reflect some practices associated with both desirable and undesirable children’s eating behavior. Confusion in terminology and lack of consistency in behavioral descriptions of parental feeding practices and explanations of the mechanisms of such practices are still unknown. Some considerations are proposed for future research. Resumen Desde la infancia, las prácticas alimentarias parentales (PAP) influyen en el aprendizaje del comer saludablemente. Sin embargo, la terminología inconsistente y la falta de descripciones claras de las PAP obstaculizan la comprensión de su influencia en dicho aprendizaje. A partir de una revisión selectiva de artículos científicos que incluyeron descripciones de las PAP y su relación con algún aspecto de la conducta alimentaria infantil (CAI), se buscó analizar las descripciones conductuales planteadas en la literatura durante la última década (2006-2016), con el propósito de clarificar las relaciones documentadas entre éstas y la CAI. Los resultados fueron categorizados a partir de las relaciones planteadas entre las PAP y algunos de los retos principales que el tópico de la CAI, como son: la aceptación de alimentos nuevos, el desarrollo de preferencias alimentarias y la autorregulación alimentaria. Los resultados reflejan algunas PAP asociadas tanto a conductas alimentarias deseables como indeseables para la salud de los niños. La confusión en la terminología y la falta de consistencia en las descripciones conductuales de las PAP, así como las explicaciones sobre los mecanismos por los cuales tales prácticas influyen en la CAI son todavía desconocidas. Se proponen algunas consideraciones a retomar en investigaciones futuras.

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Personalized Nutrition Advice: Preferred Ways of Receiving Information Related to Psychological Characteristics

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.575465 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Garmt B. Dijksterhuis ◽

Emily P. Bouwman ◽

Danny Taufik

Keyword(s):

Healthy Eating ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Principal Component ◽

Psychological Characteristics ◽

Dietary Advice ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Psychosocial Characteristics ◽

Subsequent Work ◽

Specific Level ◽

Small Component

The primary goal of this study is to be able to discern specific types of consumers in terms of their psychosocial characteristics who may need different ways of receiving dietary advice. Knowing these types will enable a better fit of advice to consumers’ psychosocial characteristics, hereby stimulating healthy eating as the probability of compliance to the advice can potentially increase. The study draws upon several psychological theories to distinguish unique underlying factors that can subsequently be used to personalize nutrition information for consumers. A number of general psychological scales (self-regulation, action and coping self-efficacy, social comparison, intrinsic motivation, health info processing, need for cognition and for affect, and regulatory focus) are filled out by 988 respondents, including their preferences for receiving personalized forms of nutrition advice. The set of joint items from various psychological constructs is analyzed using a Principal Component Analysis to find underlying psychological characteristics. The PCA produces four components (explaining 51% of variation), that could be interpreted as ‘intrinsic interest and capabilities for healthy eating,’ ‘perceived difficulty to eat healthily,’ ‘self-worth insecurity,’ and ‘seeking positive challenges,’ respectively. By means of a Logistic Regression these components are able to predict preferences for different forms of receiving nutrition advice. This first component shows that a mind set for maintaining a healthy diet goes together with an interest in receiving an advice on what do to and on how that will affect one’s health. The second component predicts a preference for a fixed moment to receive information/advice. This may be a strategy of those that perceive difficulties to eat healthily, to help them control their healthy food intake. The insecurity that the third component models seems to lead to a wish for receiving specific advice about their health situation at fixed moments in time. The fourth component is a small component, therefore its prediction of a wish for an advice focussing on prevention of negative consequences is probably not a strong result. The study does point out that there appear different psychosocial types of consumers, that may benefit by being addressed according to their preference for receiving nutrition advice on specific moments, of a specific level of detail or pointing at the type of consequences the advice has. A better fit of the advice to the psychosocial characteristics of the recipient, captured in the identified components in the current study, may lead to an increase in compliance, although that will have to be further investigated in subsequent work.

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Evidence accumulation, not “self-control,” explains why the dlPFC activates during normative choice

10.1101/2020.10.06.328476 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Cendri A. Hutcherson ◽

Antonio Rangel ◽

Anita Tusche

Keyword(s):

Healthy Eating ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Self Control ◽

Drift Diffusion Model ◽

Alternative Account ◽

Drift Diffusion ◽

Evidence Accumulation ◽

Dietary Choice ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal

AbstractWhat role do cognitive control regions like the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) play in normative behavior (e.g., generosity, healthy eating)? Some models suggest that dlPFC activation during normative choice reflects the use of control to overcome default hedonistic preferences. Here, we develop an alternative account, showing that an attribute-based neural drift diffusion model (anDDM) predicts trial-by-trial variation in dlPFC response across three fMRI studies and two self-control contexts (altruistic sacrifice and healthy eating). Using the anDDM to simulate a variety of self-control dilemmas generated a novel prediction: although dlPFC activity might typically increase for norm-consistent choices, deliberate self-regulation focused on normative goals should decrease or even reverse this pattern (i.e., greater dlPFC response for hedonic, self-interested choices). We confirmed these predictions in both altruistic and dietary choice contexts. Our results suggest that dlPFC’s response during normative choice may depend more on value-based evidence accumulation than inhibition of our baser instincts.

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THE HEALTHY EATING GOAL-SETTING AND THE PLANNING AND SCHEDULING SCALES FOR MEASURING SELF-REGULATION FOR HEALTHY EATING

Gestão e Sociedade ◽

10.21171/ges.v12i31.2319 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 12 (32) ◽

pp. 2359-2373

Author(s):

Truls Østbye ◽

Marissa Stroo ◽

Kayla Stankevitz ◽

Rahul Malhotra ◽

Rebecca Brouwer

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Behavior Change ◽

Goal Setting ◽

Internal Consistency ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Principal Component ◽

Planning And Scheduling ◽

Central Target ◽

Good Internal Consistency

Objectives: Healthy eating is a central target in many obesity interventions. Self-regulation is supported by theory and research as a key factor in behavior change. While a measure of self-regulation for physical activity has been developed, no such measure exists to quantify self-regulation for healthy eating. The aim of this research was to develop and validate two scales, one for Goal-setting (HEGS), and one for Planning and Scheduling (HEPS), for measuring self-regulation for healthy eating.Methods: The scales were modeled after similar scales for self-regulation of physical activity and administered to 550 participants with obesity in a workplace weight management program at two timepoints. Principal component analysis (PCA) and correlations were used to investigate structural and criterion-related validity respectively.Results: PCA indicated that HEGS contained one single factor corresponding to goal-setting, and HEPS two factors relating to planning. All displayed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient>0.7). The scales demonstrated strong criterion-related validity, evidenced by significant association with antecedents and consequences of self-regulation.Conclusions: The scales for measuring self-regulation for healthy eating showed good internal consistency, structural validity, and criterion-related validity. They can be used to assess self-regulation in interventions, and to investigate interaction between self-regulation and healthy eating behavior change.

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In-person and Online Healthy Eating Promotion Through Self-regulation (HEP-S)

Case Medical Research ◽

10.31525/ct1-nct04099498 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Healthy Eating ◽

Self Regulation

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The moralization of healthy living: Burke’s rhetoric of rebirth and older adults’ accounts of healthy eating

Health An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health Illness and Medicine ◽

10.1177/1363459312441009 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 16 (6) ◽

pp. 619-635 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Philippa Spoel ◽

Roma Harris ◽

Flis Henwood

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Lived Experience ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Rhetorical Analysis ◽

Well Being ◽

Older Age ◽

Healthy Living ◽

The Uk ◽

Health And Well Being

This article develops a rhetorical analysis of how older adults in Canada and the UK engage with civic-moral imperatives of healthy living. The analysis draws on Burke’s concepts of ‘symbolic hierarchies’ and the ‘rhetoric of rebirth’ to explore how participants discursively negotiate the moralizing framework of self-regulation and self-improvement central to healthy eating discourse, in particular. Working from the premise that healthy eating is a ‘principle of perfection’ that citizens are encouraged to strive to achieve, the article traces the vocabularies and logical distinctions of ‘guilt’, ‘purification’ and ‘redemption’ in participants’ accounts of what healthy eating means to them. This analysis reveals some of the complex, situated and often strategic ways in which they rearticulate and reconfigure the normative imperatives of healthy eating in ways suited to their lived experience and their priorities for health and well-being in older age.

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An online-based intervention to promote healthy eating through self-regulation among children: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Trials ◽

10.1186/s13063-020-04685-5 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Paula Magalhães ◽

Cátia Silva ◽

Beatriz Pereira ◽

Gabriela Figueiredo ◽

Ana Guimarães ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Randomized Controlled Trial ◽

Outcome Measures ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Intervention Group ◽

Online Intervention ◽

Assessment Protocol ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Over Time

Abstract Background Despite the enormous investment governments allocate to fight obesity, its worldwide prevalence is still on the rise. Moreover, the majority of the programs implemented are still targeting adults struggling with overweightness and focusing on transmitting knowledge about food. However, research shows that obesity prevention is more efficacious and cheaper, and beliefs about healthy eating have a stronger influence on eating behavior than declarative knowledge about food. In fact, knowledge about healthy eating only influences weight status when combined with self-regulation competences. Thus, the main goal of the current project is to develop and evaluate the efficacy of an online preventive intervention program, the HEP-S. This program is designed to promote and develop a set of transversal skills and strategies, related to self-regulation, on the healthy eating domain among school-aged children. Methods A three-armed randomized controlled trial will be conducted in several schools in Portugal. It will include a standard control group, with no intervention; an online intervention group, with the program for 20 weeks; and an enhanced online intervention group, with the program for 20 weeks embedded with gamification strategies throughout the program. Per research group, 40 groups of about 15 children each will be recruited and measured at five different time points. The three research groups will complete the same assessment protocol at the same timings (baseline, post-intervention, and 3, 6, and 9 months’ follow-ups). The assessment protocol will include anthropometric and psychological measures. The primary outcome measures will be the development of self-regulation skills for healthy eating over time, the development of self-efficacy attitudes, knowledge about healthy eating over time, and others. The secondary outcome measures will include the effect of gamification strategies, engagement, and satisfaction with the program, among others. The program will comprise the following: (i) a weekly group synchronous videoconference session with a trained educational psychologist serving as a mediator and (ii) a weekly parental involvement activity. Narratives, or story-tools, embedded with self-regulation strategies are at the core of the intervention. Discussion The program may play an important role in preventing risky and unhealthy eating behaviors by focusing on the development of self-regulation skills and strategies among elementary school children. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04099498. Registered on 23 September 2019.

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Food Culture in the Home Environment: Family Meal Practices and Values Can Support Healthy Eating and Self-Regulation in Young People in Four European Countries

Applied Psychology Health and Well-Being ◽

10.1111/aphw.12034 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 22-40 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

John B.F. de Wit ◽

F. Marijn Stok ◽

Derek J. Smolenski ◽

Denise D.T. de Ridder ◽

Emely de Vet ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Home Environment ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Self Regulation ◽

European Countries ◽

Food Culture ◽

Family Meal

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Gestational Weight Gain Intervention Impacts Determinants of Healthy Eating and Exercise in Overweight/Obese Pregnant Women

Journal of Obesity ◽

10.1155/2018/6469170 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Abigail M. Pauley ◽

Emily Hohman ◽

Jennifer S. Savage ◽

Daniel E. Rivera ◽

Penghong Guo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Weight Gain ◽

Pregnant Women ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Behavioral Control ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Subjective Norm ◽

Balance Model ◽

Perceived Behavioral Control ◽

Proof Of Concept ◽

Gestational Weight

High gestational weight gain (GWG) in overweight/obese pregnant women increases maternal-fetal complications. We conducted a 6-week GWG intervention based on an energy balance model that includes theories of planned behavior (TPB) and self-regulation constructs to promote exercise and healthy eating motivation and behaviors. The purposes of this proof-of-concept feasibility study were to examine: (1) the energy balance model constructs over the intervention, and (2) pre-post intervention, weekly, and dose-response changes in study constructs. Methods. Overweight/obese pregnant women (N=17) were randomized to 1 of 6 conditions, increasing in intensity, and included varied combinations of components (exercise sessions, healthy eating demonstrations, etc.). Exercise and healthy eating TPB (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, intention), and self-regulation (prospective, retrospective) constructs were collected weekly. Exercise behavior, energy intake, and GWG were collected daily. Results. We observed: (a) significant increases in exercise TPB constructs, healthy eating attitude (limit unhealthy foods), exercise/healthy eating retrospective self-regulation; (b) significant decrease in healthy eating subjective norm (limit unhealthy foods); (c) trending increases for healthy eating perceived behavioral control (limit unhealthy foods), healthy eating prospective self-regulation, and energy intake; (d) significantly higher active time, steps, and energy expenditure at W3 relative to other weeks; (e) no significant increase in GWG; and, (f) a dose response effect such that women in more intensive dosages had greater gains in exercise and healthy eating perceived behavioral control (eat healthy/limit unhealthy foods). Conclusion. Brief exposure to a theoretically-driven, GWG intervention resulted in changes to exercise and healthy eating TPB and self-regulation motivational determinants, no significant increase in GWG, and suggests intervention intensity can strengthen perceived ability to engage in exercise/healthy eating behaviors; offering initial proof-of-concept for the intervention to regulate GWG in overweight/obese pregnant women. Future research will test this intervention over the course of pregnancy to understand long-term impact on maternal-fetal health outcomes.

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