Using Positive Parent-child Interactions as an Alternative Reinforcer to Promote Healthier Eating Among Young Children

The modern environment is obesity-promoting, with easy access to palatable, energy-dense foods and appealing sedentary activities. Despite this overarching environment, some individuals are able to maintain a normal weight status, suggesting that there are individual differences in susceptibility to obesity-promoting environments. The RRV of food captures individual differences in the motivation to eat by measuring how hard individuals will work for access to food versus other activities, and it has been shown to predict weight outcomes among infants, children, and adults. In a pilot study with infants, Kong, Eiden, Epstein, et al. demonstrated support for this hypothesis as providing infants and parents with access to group music classes increased infants' reinforcing values of music relative to food. Compared to other age groups, less research has been conducted on the RRV of food in preschool children. Filling this gap in the literature is important, as the preschool period is a period of drastic transitions, including extensive learning of food preferences and habits. Studies have also shown that obesity during adolescence is more likely among children who are already overweight by age 5, further highlighting the importance of innovative approaches to childhood obesity prevention prior to school entry.

In the proposed study, we aim to bring together the literature on food reinforcement and the literature on parenting interventions in early childhood by promoting positive, rewarding parent-child interactions as a novel alternative reinforcer to decrease the RRV of food. Positive parenting can be defined as sensitive, responsive parenting, where parents' responses are appropriate for and contingent upon the child's cues and developmental level. This style of parenting early in life has been linked to positive cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes in adolescence and beyond. The focus of the present study is to assess the initial efficacy of the present parenting intervention, as well as its feasibility. This study will pave the way for future testing of this intervention's effects on the RRV of food and other positive developmental and health outcomes.