ESR9 Peer and sibling influence on children’s healthy eating behavior (preadolescents)

Photo CC: Joe Urrutia/Nofima

Project within WP6 (to a lesser extent WP7)

Objectives:

(1) to investigate the influence of secondary socialisation agents (peers and siblings) and social media marketing on children’s healthy eating behaviour in preadolescents of different family compositions

(2) to study when and whether peer and sibling influence is ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ with respect to eating healthily

(3) to investigate types of influence (e.g. normative or modelling social influence) used by peers and siblings

(4) to identify the types of influence the different groups (peer groups and siblings) exert

(5) to test how children receive and are affected by social media marketing approaches to influencing behaviour.

Expected results:

The studies will provide important insights into a less researched area of children’s food socialization in terms of informal but important social influences at home and around friends, and the assess the effect of social media marketing approaches to healthy eating. The results will be relevant both for social and commercial marketing purposes and will be used to develop recommendations for social marketing approaches to influence children’s healthy eating habits. 3 papers submitted.

Planned secondments:

  • Academic 3-month secondment at WUR, with the objective of exchanging experiences on the nudging approach and methodological issues in applying this in research with children, as well as preparing one of the studies
  • Basel University Children’s hospital research department in Switzerland for 2 months
  • Applied secondment in an industry at Kidvertising Agency during 3 months to cooperate on social media marketing in relation to the project.Host: MAPP-AU (Denmark)

 

Papers by ESR9

Ragelienė, T. and A. Grønhøj (2020), The influence of peers′ and siblings′ on children’s and adolescents′ healthy eating behavior. A systematic literature review. Appetite, 148: p. 104592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104592

Ragelienė, T. and A. Grønhøj, (2020) Preadolescents’ healthy eating behavior: peeping through the social norms approach. BMC Public Health, 20(1): p. 1268. doi:10.1186/s12889-020-09366-1

Ragelienė, T. (2021). Do children favor snacks and dislike vegetables? Exploring children’s food preferences using drawing as a projective technique. A cross-cultural study. Appetite, 165, 105276. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105276

Ragelienė, T., & Grønhøj, A. (2021). The role of peers, siblings and social media for children’s healthy eating socialization: a mixed methods study. Food Quality and Preference, 93, 104255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104255

Ragelienė, T., Aschemann-Witzel, J., & Grønhøj, A. (2021). Efficacy of a smartphone application-based intervention for encouraging children’s healthy eating in Denmark. Health Promotion International. https://doi:10.1093/heapro/daab081

Popular summaries of papers

Preadolescents’healthy eating behavior:peeping through the social norms approach

Do children favor snacks and dislike vegetables? Exploring children’s food preferences using drawing as a projective technique. A cross-cultural study

The influence of peers′ and siblings′ on children’s and adolescents′ healthy eating behavior

Blogposts by ESR9

Your diet means more than you think

What do they see in you?

Pre-adolescents don’t know what a parsnip is

Children spent a huge amount of time with their friends and peers and the relationship with them have a significant influence on their development.

Interview with Tija at the start of her project

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