Memorizing fruit: The effect of a fruit memory-game on children's fruit intake

Contains fulltext : 162135.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Food cues of palatable food are omnipresent, thereby simulating the intake of unhealthy snack food among children. As a consequence, this might lead to a higher intake of energy-dense snacks and less fruit and vegetables, a habit that increases the risk of developing chronic diseases. The aim of this experimental study is to examine whether playing a memory game with fruit affects fruit intake among young children. We used a randomized between-subject design with 127 children (age: 7-12 y) who played a memory-game, containing either fruit (n = 64) or non-food products (n = 63). While playing the memory-game in a separate room in school during school hours, free intake of fruit (mandarins, apples, bananas, and grapes) was measured. Afterwards, the children completed self-report measures, and length and weight were assessed. The main finding is that playing a memory-game containing fruit increases overall fruit intake (P = 0.016). Children who played the fruit version of the memory-game ate more bananas (P = 0.015) and mandarins (P = 0.036) than children who played the non-food memory-game; no effects were found for apples (P > 0.05) and grapes (P > 0.05). The findings suggest that playing a memory-game with fruit stimulates fruit intake among young children. This is an important finding because children eat insufficient fruit, according to international standards, and more traditional health interventions have limited success. Healthy eating habits of children maintain when they become adults, making it important to stimulate fruit intake among children in an enjoyable way. Trial registration: Nederlands Trial Register TC = 56876 p

Beloved bodies & forbidden foods: Media influence on body image and food intake

Contains fulltext : 84480.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, 14 maart 2011Promotores : Engels, R.C.M.E., Becker, E.S. Co-promotor : Strien, T. van421 p

Self-control and the effects of movie alcohol portrayals on immediate alcohol consumption in male college students

Contains fulltext : 148873.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Background: In movies, alcohol-related cues are frequently depicted and there is evidence for a link between movie alcohol cues and immediate alcohol consumption. Less is known about factors influencing immediate effects movie alcohol exposure on drinking. The exertion of self-control is thought to be important in avoiding or resisting certain temptations. Aims: The aim of the present study was to assess the immediate effects of movie alcohol portrayals on drinking of male social drinkers and to assess the moderating role of self-control in this relation. It was hypothesized that participants would drink more when exposed to movie alcohol portrayals and that especially participants with low self-control would be affected by these portrayals. Methods: A between-subjects design comparing two movie conditions (alcohol or no portrayal of alcohol) was used, in which 154 pairs of male friends (ages 18-30) watched a 1-h movie in a semi-naturalistic living room setting. Their alcohol consumption while watching was examined. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing self-control as well as their self-reported weekly alcohol use. A multivariate regression analysis was conducted to test the effects of movie condition on alcohol consumption. Results: Self-control moderated the relation between movie condition and alcohol consumption. Assignment to the alcohol movie condition increased alcohol consumption during the movie for males with high self-control but not for males with low self-control. Conclusion: Viewing a movie with alcohol portrayals can lead to higher alcohol consumption in a specific sample of young men while watching a movie.7 p

Seks in reclame: Kan het vrouwen nog wat schelen? Onderzoek naar de attitudes van vrouwen wat betreft de seksuele objectificatie van vrouwelijke modellen in reclame, en het effect daarvan op algemene koopintenties en bedrijfsimago

Contains fulltext : 102860-OA.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)This study investigated women’s attitudes toward sexually objectified advertising and replicated the study of Zimmerman & Dahlberg (2008). An online survey among 250 female students shows that they do not find sexually objectified advertising in general to be particularly offensive. Moreover, sexually objectifying advertising does not seem to harm the company image nor general purchase intentions. However, when looking at ads with varying degrees of sexual objectification, we found that ads with high levels of sexual objectification were perceived as unethical and offensive, which translated into a negative attitude toward the ad. We were not able to confirm Zimmerman & Dahlberg’s assertion that the emergence of postfeminism relates to the more favorable attitudes of women toward sexual objectification.22 p

A social identity perspective on conformity to cyber aggression among early adolescents on WhatsApp

Contains fulltext : 230176.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)Cyber aggressive behaviors such as nonconsensual image sharing, nasty comments, and social exclusion frequently take place on WhatsApp. These behaviors often involve group processes, where adolescents conform to peers' behaviors. WhatsApp is pre-eminently suited for group-communication among adolescents, and, thus, may facilitate conformity to such behaviors. However, research on conformity on WhatsApp is scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine if and how the social identity perspective on group behavior may explain cyber aggression on WhatsApp. Specifically, we examined how social identification relates to conformity to cyber aggression on WhatsApp. In a preregistered survey, 647 early adolescents answered questions about social identification with group members and conformity to behavior of a WhatsApp group. Hierarchical multiple regression and moderated mediation analyses point towards an indirect, positive relation between the centrality component of social identification and conformity to cyber aggression, mediated by perceived social pressure to conform. These findings contribute to the literature by extending the social identity perspective to conformity on WhatsApp. Further exploration of this research line within the field of cyber aggression is warranted, because this can help improve applied interventions to reduce conformity to cyber aggression.16 p

Prosociaal nieuws en prosociaal gedrag in kinderen: Een experimentele studie naar prosociaal televisienieuws voor kinderen en prosociaal gedrag

Contains fulltext : 134822-OA.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Previous findings have indicated that prosocial children are happier, are more popular, and do better at school. As children devote a substantial amount of time watching television, children’s programming might be an excellent avenue to encourage prosocial behaviour – and, subsequently, well-being in children. In an experimental study among 372 children aged 9 to 13 years, we examined whether prosocial behaviour in children’s television news affects prosocial intentions and behaviours. Children in the experimental condition watched prosocial news showing children organizing a fundraising action for unicef. In the control condition, children watched an item about unicef without prosocial behaviour. After watching, children could donate to unicef which served as an index of prosocial behaviour. Prosocial intentions were assessed with a questionnaire. Findings demonstrated that children who watched prosocial news were significantly more willing to help in setting up a project for unicef at their schools and donated more money to unicef.16 p

Attentional bias for food cues in advertising among overweight and hungry children

Item does not contain fulltextAttentional bias theory suggests that an increased motivation to receive or avoid a rewarding substance elevates automatic selective attention toward cues that are related to that specific substance. Until now, no study has examined attentional bias toward food cues in food advertisements, even though these are designed to grab the attention of possible consumers and induce craving and eating behavior. This study aims to examine if overweight and hungry children have an attentional bias for food cues when exposed to food advertising. A randomized between-subject design was used with 95 children (age: 7- 10 years) who played an advergame that promoted either energy-dense snacks or nonfood products. While playing, eye-movements to food or nonfood cues were recorded to assess attentional bias. We found that overweight children had a higher gaze duration for the food cues (P < 0.05, Cohen's d = 0.72) compared to normal weight children. We found no effects of overweight for number of fixations and latency of initial fixation for the food cues. No effects were found of overweight on the attentional bias measurements for the nonfood cues. Furthermore, hungrier children had a higher gaze duration (P < 0.05, Cohen’s f2 = 0.18), a higher number of fixations (P < 0.05, Cohen's f2 = 0.19), and a faster latency of initial fixation on the food cues than less hungry children (P < 0.05, Cohen's f2 = 0.15), whilewe found the opposite results for the nonfood cues. Food cues trigger attention to a larger extent among overweight and hungrier children. The findings largely confirm our expectations, adding important knowledge to existing literature about attentional bias theory.1 p

Social modeling of food purchases at supermarkets in teenage girls

Contains fulltext : 99715.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Ample experimental research has demonstrated the impact of peer influence on food intake in adolescents and adults. However, none of these studies focused social modeling effects on food purchases in supermarkets. This study investigated whether the food purchase behavior of a confederate peer would be adopted by the participant. Teenage girls (N = 89) were asked to perform a shopping task in a local supermarket. They had to shop with a same-sex confederate peer who had been instructed earlier to purchase either five low-kilocaloric food products, five average-kilocaloric or five high-kilocaloric food products. Significant main effects for the experimental purchase condition and hunger were found on the amount of kilocalories of the purchased food products. Teenage girls who shopped with a peer in the high-kilocaloric condition purchased higher kilocaloric food products relative to the girls who shopped with a peer in the low-kilocaloric condition. In addition, girls who reported to be hungry purchased higher kilocaloric food products in general. These findings might imply that teenage girls follow unhealthy food purchases of a peer during shopping. Health promotion might benefit from our findings by also focusing on food purchases and not only food intake.6 p

The Effect of Alcohol Advertising on Immediate Alcohol Consumption in College Students: An Experimental Study

Contains fulltext : 102951.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Background:  Survey studies have emphasized a positive association between exposure to alcohol advertising on television (TV) and the onset and continuation of drinking among young people. Alcohol advertising might also directly influence viewers’ consumption of alcohol while watching TV. The present study therefore tested the immediate effects of alcohol advertisements on the alcohol consumption of young adults while watching a movie. Weekly drinking, problem drinking, positive and arousal expectancies of alcohol, ad recall, attitude, and skepticism toward the ads were tested as moderators. Methods:  An experimental design comparing 2 advertisement conditions (alcohol ads vs. nonalcohol ads) was used. A total of 80 men, young adult friendly dyads (ages 18 to 29) participated. The study examined actual alcohol consumption while watching a 1-hour movie with 3 advertising breaks. A multivariate regression analysis was used to examine the effects of advertisement condition on alcohol consumption. Results:  Assignment to the alcohol advertisement condition did not increase alcohol consumption. In addition, no moderating effects between advertisement condition and the individual factors on alcohol consumption were found. Conclusions:  Viewing alcohol advertising did not lead to higher alcohol consumption in young men while watching a movie. However, replications of this study using other samples (e.g., different countries and cultures), other settings (e.g., movie theater, home), and with other designs (e.g., different movies and alcohol ads, cumulative exposure, extended exposure effects) are warranted.7 p

Setting a social norm regarding food intake in children

Contains fulltext : 90155.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)People use other's food intake as a social norm indicating how much they are 'allowed' to eat. Ample experimental research showed the impact of peer modeling on food intake in adolescents and adults, whereas few studies focused on young children. This study used an innovative design in a naturalistic setting to investigate whether a social norm in food intake that was set by a confederate peer would still be followed by the participant a few days later. Therefore, we made use of two sessions in which the participants (N = 221) were asked to perform a cover task, i.e. solving a puzzle in 10 min. In the first session, they had to cooperate with a same-sex normal-weight confederate that was instructed to either consume nothing, a small (3) or a large (10) amount of chocolate-coated peanuts. In the second session (at least two days later), the participant was left alone with a variety of foods. An ANCOVA, with hunger and liking of the chocolate-coated peanuts as covariates, revealed significant main effects for eating condition on kcal consumed in the first session F(2,217) = 12.34, p < 0.001 as well as in the second session F(2,218) = 6.26, p < 0.001. Post-hoc Bonferroni tests showed a significant difference in food intake between children in the no-intake and high intake condition in both sessions. This suggests that a social norm was being set during the first session which still served as a norm for the participant in the second session. No differences were found in effects between children with a low or high BMI. In sum, our findings showed that children are strongly affected by a peer's food intake.1 p