Food for Thought: Executive Functioning Around Eating Among Children

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

125 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2023-10-05

Study Completion Date

2025-12-31

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

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.

Related Clinical Trials

Explore similar clinical trials based on study characteristics and research focus.

Family, Responsibility, Education, Support, and Health for Food Responsiveness

NCT06207110

Obesity, Childhood

RECRUITING NA

Nurturing Needs Study: Parenting Food Motivated Children

NCT06111040

Parenting Eating Behavior Diet, Healthy +1 more

RECRUITING NA

Decision-Making and the Relationship to Food Intake in Kids

NCT02855398

Pediatric Obesity

COMPLETED

Resilience to the Effects of Advertising in Children

NCT05073185

Obesity, Childhood

RECRUITING

Decision-making for Food Consumption in Young Adults

NCT04912375

Food Selection

COMPLETED NA

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

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.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Self-regulation Appetitive Behavior Eating Behavior Child Obesity

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

NA

Intervention Model

SINGLE_GROUP

This is an observational, cross-sectional study that involves interventions ONLY at the measurement level.

Primary Study Purpose

OTHER

Blinding Strategy

NONE

This is an observational cross-sectional study with interventions ONLY at the measurement level. The research assistant administers the tasks and records the outcomes; therefore, no masking is used.

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

Executive functioning observational tasks

Interventions take place solely at the measurement level, where children will be seen in observational tasks of general executive functioning and executive functioning around eating in which various food and non-food stimuli are presented and children's responses to task instructions are recorded.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

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

Minimum Eligible Age

4 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

6 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes