Family Meal Duration and Children's Eating Behavior

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Child Behavior; Feeding Behavior; Family Relations; Eating
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Longer meal duration

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 Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 50
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Germany
  • Berlin, Germany, 14195
    • Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 6 years to 10 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• children and their nutritional gatekeeper

Exclusion Criteria:

• food allergies
• participants follow special diet

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Longer meal duration; Families eat longer as they usually do	Behavioral: Longer meal duration; Participants have 50% more time to eat than usual
No Intervention: Usual meal duration; Families eat as long as they usually do

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Food consumption	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.	Food intake is measured during the lab meal

Secondary Outcome Measures

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

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Max Planck Institute for Human Development
• Collaborators: University of Mannheim

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 17, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 20, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): April 25, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 30, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 27, 2022
• Last Verified: June 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: ARC1

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No