Food for Thought: Executive Functioning Around Eating Among Children

Characterizing Top-down Dimensions of Appetite Self-regulation Among Preschoolers

Scientific knowledge of the cognitive-developmental processes that serve to support children's appetite self-regulation are surprisingly limited. This investigation will provide new scientific directions for obesity prevention by elucidating cognitive-developmental influences on young children's ability to make healthy food choices and eat in moderation.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Child Obesity; Eating Behavior; Appetitive Behavior; Self-regulation
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Executive functioning observational tasks

Detailed Description

Appetite self-regulation (ASR) has been described as involving children's use of eating-specific, "top-down" cognitive processes to moderate "bottom-up" biological drives to eat. Much of the research to date on ASR has focused on the role of bottom-up drives in shaping children's behavioral susceptibility to obesity. Alternatively, little is known about the cognitive-developmental processes that shape children's ability to make healthy food choices and eat in moderation during early childhood. The goal of this exploratory investigation is to produce rigorous evidence of cognitive developmental influences on healthy eating behaviors and weight status during preschool through the development of new measures of top-down ASR. Participants will be 125 preschoolers and their primary caregiver. Existing measures of executive functioning in children will be adapted to create new measures of eating-specific, top-down ASR. Associations with children's eating behaviors, body mass index z-scores, food parenting will be assessed.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 125
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Christina Croce, MS; Phone Number: 215-707-8672; Email: christina.croce@temple.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19140
      • Recruiting
      • Temple University
      • Contact: Christina Croce, MS; Phone Number: 215-707-8672; Email: christina.croce@temple.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Study Population

Community sample of urban preschool aged children and their primary caregivers will be recruited in Philadelphia, PA.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Child ages 4 to 6 years of age
2. Caregiver reporting primary responsibility for child feeding outside of childcare
3. Caregiver legal guardian

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Caregiver <18 years of age
2. Child major food allergies
3. Child medication use, developmental disability, or medical conditions known to affect food intake and/or growth; color blindness
4. Child in foster care

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Food choice	Children's forced-choice selection of fruits, vegetables, and water over alternatives at a meal	Assessed at 1 of 2 study visits over 2 weeks
Eating in the absence of hunger	Children's intake of palatable foods following a standard meal	Assessed at 1 of 2 study visits over 2 weeks
Body mass index z-score	Age and sex specific z-score using CDC reference data	Assessed at 1 of 2 study visits over 2 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Temple University
• Collaborators: Baylor College of Medicine; University of Nevada, Reno
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jennifer O Fisher, PhD, Temple University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Russell CG, Russell A. "Food" and "non-food" self-regulation in childhood: a review and reciprocal analysis. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2020 Mar 10;17(1):33. doi: 10.1186/s12966-020-00928-5.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 5, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 24, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 24, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): October 30, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 10, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 7, 2025
• Last Verified: April 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nutrition Disorders; Overnutrition; Body Weight; Overweight; Obesity; Pediatric Obesity
• Other Study ID Numbers: R21HD109362 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Research data generated by the project will be supported by TUScholarShare (https://scholarshare.temple.edu/), the institutional repository for Temple University. This is a repository service that is managed by the Temple University Libraries and uses Open Repository, an enhanced DSpace platform that is hosted by Atmire. TUScholarShare has been developed with the intent of helping researchers comply with grant-funding agency requirements. It enables dissemination and long-term preservation and curation (management, use, and re-use) of data.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No