Relationship of mother and child food purchases as a function of price: a pilot study.

To our knowledge, there are no data on parental influences on child purchasing behavior of healthy or unhealthy foods. Mothers and children in ten families were given 5.00 US dollars to purchase portions of preferred fruits/vegetables and high energy-dense snack foods for each of ten trials of price manipulations.

Purchases of food in youth. Influence of price and income.

One way to increase choice of healthy over unhealthy behaviors is to increase the cost of less healthy alternatives or reduce the cost of healthier alternatives. The influence of price on purchases of healthy and unhealthy foods was evaluated in two laboratory experiments. In Experiment 1, thirty-two 10- to 12-year-old youth were given $5.

The value of sedentary alternatives influences child physical activity choice.

The choice to be physically active or sedentary depends in part on the value of the alternatives that are available. The shift from sedentary to active alternatives may be a function of the value of the sedentary alternatives. To evaluate the influence of the value of the sedentary alternatives on the choice to be physically active or sedentary, 30 nonobese 8-12-year-old youth were randomized in groups that provided a choice between 4 active alternatives or 4 sedentary alternatives (Group 1), their least valued sedentary activity (Group 2), or their most valued sedentary activity (Group 3), on computerized and questionnaire versions of a behavioral choice task.

Habituation of salivation and motivated responding for food in children.

Repeated presentation of food cues results in habituation in adults, as demonstrated by a decrement in salivary responding that is reversed by presenting a new food cue in adults. Food reinforced behavior in animals shows the same pattern of responding, with a decrease in responding to obtain the food, followed by a recovery of responding when a new food is presented. The present study assessed whether children would show the same pattern of a decrement of food reinforced responding followed by recovery of responding when a new food is presented for both salivation and food reinforcement tasks.