Family Meal Duration and Children's Eating Behavior

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Child Behavior; Feeding Behavior; Family Relations; Eating
• Interventions: Behavioral: Longer meal duration

• Registration Number: NCT03127579
• Lead Sponsor: Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Brief Summary

The goal of this study is to test whether a longer meal duration could improve the diet quality of children. To answer this question we want to take an experimental approach by implementing a longer family meal duration to examine differences in children's eating behavior. The family dinner within a laboratory setting will be video taped and the main outcome is children's fruit and vegetables consumption.

Detailed Description

Parent-child pairs have two dinner in a laboratory setting. The study design is a within-subject design: In the control condition they have as much time as they usual. In the intervention condition they have 50% more time than usual. Order of the two condition is counter balanced. The lab dinner reflects a typical German dinner which consists of bread, cheese, cold meat and fruits and vegetables. Additionally a dessert is served after the main meal. The foods served reflect food preferences of the child. All dinners are video taped. Key outcome variables are consumption of fruits and vegetables, dessert, eating rate and amount time engaged in positive and negative social interaction

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2016-11
• Study First Submitted: 2016-11-17
• Study First Submitted QC: 2017-04-20
• Study First Posted: 2017-04-25
• Primary Completion: 2017-12
• Study Completion: 2017-12
• Status Verified: 2022-06
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-06-27
• Last Update Posted: 2022-06-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 50

Inclusion Criteria

• children and their nutritional gatekeeper

Exclusion Criteria

• food allergies
• participants follow special diet

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: CROSSOVER

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Longer meal duration	Longer meal duration	Families eat longer as they usually do

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Food consumption	Food intake is measured during the lab meal	The lab dinner is video taped. Consumption of fruits, vegetables, bread, cheese, cold meat and dessert (cookies or pudding), drinks (water, or milk, or juice) are coded by two independent rater.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Social interactions: positive and negative communication	Social interaction is measured during the lab meal	The lab dinner is video taped. Social interactions are coded according to the ABC family mealtime coding system by Fiese, Winter \& Botti, 2011.
Eating rate	From the start to the end of the meal (about 20-30 minutes)	Bites per minute coded from video tapes
Hunger	Participants filled out a questionnaire 5 minutes after the lab dinner	Hunger rating scale (ranging from 1= I am really hungry to 5 = I am not hungry at all)
Atmosphere	Participants filled out a questionnaire 5 minutes after the lab dinner	Atmosphere rating scale (ranging from 1= very negative to 5 = very positive)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Max Planck Institute for Human Development; 🇩🇪 Berlin, Germany