The Child Food Rejection Scale: Development and validation of a new scale to assess food neophobia and pickiness among 2- to 7-year-old French children

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Food rejection in young children:Validation of the Child Food Rejection Scale in English and cross-cultural examination in the UK and France.

Although there are numerous studies examining food rejection (neophobia and pickiness), very few studies have directly compared these particular behaviors in children from different countries. Testing children from different countries is important for future research, as there are clear differences between European countries in early feeding practices and child fruit and vegetable consumption. In the present study we aimed to (i) validate the Child Food Rejection Scale in English and (ii) compare children’s food neophobia and pickiness in the UK and France. To that aim, the Child Food Rejection Scale was first translated into English and its reliability and validity were assessed. Second, food rejection scores in a UK sample (n=117) and in a French sample (n=256) were directly compared to examine cross-cultural differences. Results showed that the Child Food Rejection Scale can be successfully used outside France. Moreover results revealed that UK children are less neophobic and picky than French children. These cultural differences can be useful to inform targeted interventions to change food related behaviors in these different populations

Visual exposure and categorization performance positively influence 3- to 6-year-old children's willingness to taste unfamiliar vegetables

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Food neophobia and pickiness in young children. How to measure it?

International audienceBackground. The two strongest barriers to increasing children's dietary variety and consumption of fruit and vegetables are food neophobia and pickiness, assumed to be the main kinds of food rejection in children. Accordingly, psychometric tools that provide a clear assessment of food neophobia and pickiness are greatly needed. Objective.We developed and validated a new scale for the assessment of food neophobia and pickiness, thus filling a major gap in the psychometric assessment of food rejection by French children. We concentrated on French children aged 2-7 years, as no such scale exists for this young population, and on the two known dimensions of food rejection, namely food neophobia and pickiness, as the nature of the relationship between them is still unclear. Design. The questionnaire was administered online to two samples (N =168; N ==256) of caregivers who responded for their children aged between 2 and 7 years. Additionally, a food choice task was administered to 17 children to check the scale's predictive validity. Main outcome measures/Statistical analysis performed. A factor analysis was performed to investigate the underlying structure of the scale. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent discriminant and predictive validity were also assessed. Results.The resulting scale, called the Child Food Rejection Scale (CFRS), included six items relating to food neophobia and five items relating to pickiness. The factor analysis confirmed the two-dimensional structure of the scale. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity were all satisfactory. Moreover, results from the food choice task showed that scores on the CFRS accurately predicted children's attitudes toward new and familiar foods. Conclusions.Taken together, these findings suggest that the CFRS, a short and easy-to-administer scale, represents a valuable tool for studying food rejection tendencies in French children

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La néophobie et la sélectivité alimentaire des jeunes enfants ont des conséquences préoccupantes sur la santé notamment parce qu’elles concernent les fruits et les légumes. Il est donc essentiel de promouvoir l’adoption de comportements alimentaires sains chez le jeune enfant. Dans ce contexte, le premier objectif de la thèse était de développer un questionnaire pour mesurer efficacement la néophobie et la sélectivité alimentaire chez les enfants français dès l'âge de 2 ans. Le questionnaire développé dans cette thèse est un outil efficace pour étudier les rejets chez cette population. Le deuxième objectif était de mieux définir le concept de sélectivité alimentaire et d’étudier la relation entre néophobie et sélectivité. Les résultats ont montré que la néophobie et la sélectivité capturent un même type de peur pour les aliments nouveaux et potentiellement toxiques. Le troisième objectif était d'étudier directement la relation entre le développement de la catégorisation des aliments chez les jeunes enfants et leur niveau de néophobie et sélectivité alimentaire. Les résultats ont montré des liens négatifs entre développement cognitif et rejets alimentaires. L'acceptation des aliments dépend probablement de la maturité du système de catégorisation alimentaire. Enfin, le quatrième objectif était de concevoir une intervention, en exploitant les données empiriques sur la relation entre développement cognitif et rejets alimentaires, afin d'influencer positivement ces derniers chez les enfants. Les résultats montrent que l'exposition visuelle est efficace pour diminuer les comportements de rejets alimentaires.Food neophobia and pickiness in young children are two strong barriers to fruit and vegetable consumption. It is therefore essential to understand the mechanisms underpinning these two kinds of food rejections to promote the adoption of healthy eating behaviors among preschoolers. In this context, the first objective of the thesis was to develop a hetero-assessment scale to measure efficiently food neophobia and pickiness for French children as young as 2 years of age. The scale developed represents an efficient tool for studying food rejection dispositions in this young population. The second objective was to clarify the concept of pickiness and to provide an insight into the relationship between food neophobia and pickiness. The results revealed that food neophobia and pickiness capture a same kind of fear for new and potentially toxic food. The third objective was to directly investigate the relationship between food categorization development in young children and their food neophobia and pickiness. The thesis is one of the first studies to investigate directly this relationship.This investigation revealed negative connections between cognitive development and food rejection dispositions. Food acceptance probably depends on the maturity of the food categorization system. Finally, the fourth objective was to design an intervention, exploiting the empirical evidence on the relationship between food categorization and food rejections, to positively influence children food rejections. The results add to the promising body of evidence that visual exposure is effective to decrease food rejection behaviors

Food rejection and the development of food category-based induction in 2-6 years old children

International audienceWe studied children's inductive inferences within the domain of food categories. There has so far been little research on inductive reasoning about food among children, despite the theoretical and practical importance of knowing what knowledge children bring to the table and how they use it. We tested the hypotheses that children's food category-based induction performances and their food rejection are negatively correlated, and that these performances are influenced by the color typicality of the food items. We recruited 126 children aged 2-6 years, and administered a category-based induction task. Participants were successively shown 8 sets of three pictures containing one target picture (a vegetable) and two test pictures (a vegetable dissimilar in color to the target picture and a fruit similar in color to the target picture). For each set, participants were told a novel property about the target picture and asked to generalize this property to one of the two test pictures. Additionally, the parents of each child filled out a questionnaire about his or her food rejection tendencies. Results on accuracy (i.e., if participants generalized the properties according to category membership, not perceptual similarity) provided the first empirical evidence in favor of a negative relationship between children's food rejection and food category-based induction

Validation d’une nouvelle échelle des rejets alimentaires des enfants de 2-6 ans

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Food rejection and the development of food categorization in young children

International audienceFood rejection and food categorization are the hallmarks of the omnivore's dilemma, but little is known about the former's development or its relationship with the latter in children. We recruited 79 children aged 2–6 years and 30 adults to test the hypotheses that (i) children's food categorization starts to improve at 2 years, (ii) their food rejection is intrinsi-cally linked to development of the food categorization system, and (iii) food categorization relies mainly on color, which conveys information about food typicality. In a categorization task, participants were shown color photographs of fruit and vegetables, and asked to put items belonging to the same category in the same box. Results on accuracy indicated an age-related increase in food categorization performances, and provided the first empirical evidence speaking in favor of i) a relationship between children's food rejection and food categorization, and ii) the central role of color typicality in food categorization

Food neophobia and pickiness in young children. How to measure it?

International audienceBackground. The two strongest barriers to increasing children's dietary variety and consumption of fruit and vegetables are food neophobia and pickiness, assumed to be the main kinds of food rejection in children. Accordingly, psychometric tools that provide a clear assessment of food neophobia and pickiness are greatly needed. Objective.We developed and validated a new scale for the assessment of food neophobia and pickiness, thus filling a major gap in the psychometric assessment of food rejection by French children. We concentrated on French children aged 2-7 years, as no such scale exists for this young population, and on the two known dimensions of food rejection, namely food neophobia and pickiness, as the nature of the relationship between them is still unclear. Design. The questionnaire was administered online to two samples (N =168; N ==256) of caregivers who responded for their children aged between 2 and 7 years. Additionally, a food choice task was administered to 17 children to check the scale's predictive validity. Main outcome measures/Statistical analysis performed. A factor analysis was performed to investigate the underlying structure of the scale. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent discriminant and predictive validity were also assessed. Results.The resulting scale, called the Child Food Rejection Scale (CFRS), included six items relating to food neophobia and five items relating to pickiness. The factor analysis confirmed the two-dimensional structure of the scale. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity were all satisfactory. Moreover, results from the food choice task showed that scores on the CFRS accurately predicted children's attitudes toward new and familiar foods. Conclusions.Taken together, these findings suggest that the CFRS, a short and easy-to-administer scale, represents a valuable tool for studying food rejection tendencies in French children

« Si je ne connais pas, je ne mange pas ! » Raisonnement inductif et rejets alimentaires chez les jeunes enfants.

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