Exploring the moderating effect of children's nutritional knowledge on the relationship between product evaluations and food choice.

Objective: Although the last decade has seen multiple attempts to increase consumers' nutritional knowledge in expectation that this will result in healthier diets, extant knowledge about the influence of nutritional knowledge on children's food choices remains scarce due to mixed empirical evidence and limited inquiry into the role of product evaluations on the consumption of less healthy foods. Furthermore, no research has examined whether nutritional knowledge can effectively moderate the relationship between product evaluations and food consumption, leaving a gap in our knowledge about potentially effective intervention strategies to curb childhood obesity.

Method: Using survey data from children aged 7-13 years and their parents (N = 354) recruited at an annual fair visited by families in South Australia, regressions were performed to examine how product evaluations are associated with the consumption of less healthy foods and whether nutritional knowledge reduces the strength of these associations at different ages (7-8 years, 9-10 years, and 11-13 years).

Food advertising, children's food choices and obesity: interplay of cognitive defences and product evaluation: an experimental study.

Objectives: To investigate the role of product evaluations, nutritional and persuasion knowledge on children's food choices conducted because of limited evidence about the role of product evaluations on consumer choices in conjunction with cognitive defences.

Design: A randomised controlled 2 × 2 factorial experiment with an exposure to a food and a control (toy) advertisement conducted in a non-laboratory setting at an annual event traditionally visited by families.

Subjects: Children aged 7-13 years with biometric/weight data representative of the general Australian population.

The effects of television and Internet food advertising on parents and children.

Objective: The current study examined the impact of television and Internet food advertising on Australian parents and children.

Design: Parents and their children aged 8 to 14 years were exposed to a television advertisement, an Internet advertisement or a control picture for four commonly advertised energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods.

Setting: Online web panel survey, Australia.