Jasmine M. DeJesus

Northern = smart and Southern = nice: the development of accent attitudes in the United States.

Adults evaluate others based on their speech, yet little is known of the developmental trajectory by which accent attitudes are acquired. Here we investigate the development of American childrens attitudes about Northern- and Southern-accented American English. Children in Illinois (the “North”) and Tennessee (the “South”) evaluated the social desirability, personality characteristics, and geographic origins of Northern- and Southern-accented individuals. Five- to 6-year-old children in Illinois preferred the Northern-accented speakers as potential friends, yet did not demonstrate knowledge of any stereotypes about the different groups; 5–6-year-old children in Tennessee did not show a preference towards either type of speaker. Nine- to 10-year-old children in both Illinois and Tennessee evaluated the Northern-accented individuals as sounding “smarter” and “in charge”, and the Southern-accented individuals as sounding “nicer.” Thus, older children endorse similar stereotypes to those observed in adulthood. These accent attitudes develop in parallel across children in different regions and reflect both positive and negative assessments of a childs own group.

Eww she sneezed! Contamination context affects children's food preferences and consumption.

Does contextual information about disgust influence childrens food consumption and subjective experience of taste? Three- to eight-year-old children (N = 60) were presented with two identical foods, yet children were led to believe that one food had been contaminated by sneezing and licking, while the other was clean. When given the opportunity to eat the foods, 5- to 8-year-old children consumed more clean food and rated the clean foods taste more positively; younger children did not distinguish between the foods. The relation between contamination and subjective taste held even among children who ate both foods and had direct evidence that they were identical. These data indicate that childrens consumption behavior and food preferences are influenced by information external to foods themselves.

Bilingual children’s social preferences hinge on accent

Past research finds that monolingual and bilingual children prefer native speakers to individuals who speak in unfamiliar foreign languages or accents. Do children in bilingual contexts socially distinguish among familiar languages and accents and, if so, how do their social preferences based on language and accent compare? The current experiments tested whether 5- to 7-year-olds in two bilingual contexts in the United States demonstrate social preferences among the languages and accents that are present in their social environments. We compared childrens preferences based on language (i.e., English vs. their other native language) and their preferences based on accent (i.e., English with a native accent vs. English with a non-native [yet familiar] accent). In Experiment 1, children attending a French immersion school demonstrated no preference between English and French speakers but preferred American-accented English to French-accented English. In Experiment 2, bilingual Korean American children demonstrated no preference between English and Korean speakers but preferred American-accented English to Korean-accented English. Across studies, bilingual childrens preferences based on accent (i.e., American-accented English over French- or Korean-accented English) were not related to their own language dominance. These results suggest that children from diverse linguistic backgrounds demonstrate social preferences for native-accented speakers. Implications for understanding the potential relation between social reasoning and language acquisition are discussed.

Mere social knowledge impacts children's consumption and categorization of foods

How does social information affect the perception of taste early in life? Does mere knowledge of other peoples food preferences impact childrens own experience when eating? In Experiment 1, 5- and 6-year-old children consumed more of a food described as popular with other children than a food that was described as unpopular with other children, even though the two foods were identical. In Experiment 2, children ate more of a food described as popular with children than a food described as popular with adults. Experiment 3 tested whether different perceptual experiences of otherwise identical foods contributed to the mechanisms underlying childrens consumption. After sampling both endpoints of a sweet-to-sour range (applesauce with 0 mL or 5mL of lemon juice added), children were asked to taste and categorize applesauce samples with varying amounts of lemon juice added. When classifying ambiguous samples that were near the midpoint of the range (2 mL and 3 mL), children were more likely to categorize popular foods as sweet as compared to unpopular foods. Together, these findings provide evidence that social information plays a powerful role in guiding childrens consumption and perception of foods. Broader links to the sociality of food selection are discussed.

Food Cognition and Nutrition Knowledge

Abstract Eating is inherently social and cultural, and as food generalists, children face a difficult task in learning to consume a diet that is both culturally and biologically appropriate. In this chapter, we provide an overview of childrens early thinking and behavior in the food domain, focusing especially on the important role that social learning plays in guiding childrens knowledge, preferences, and choices. An additional goal of the chapter is to highlight the role that carefully controlled laboratory studies can play in the quest to explain—and potentially improve—childrens eating.

An investigation of maternal food intake and maternal food talk as predictors of child food intake

Though parental modeling is thought to play a critical role in promoting childrens healthy eating, little research has examined maternal food intake and maternal food talk as independent predictors of childrens food intake. The present study examines maternal food talk during a structured eating protocol, in which mothers and their children had the opportunity to eat a series of familiar and unfamiliar vegetables and desserts. Several aspects of maternal talk during the protocol were coded, including overall food talk, directives, pronoun use, and questions. This study analyzed the predictors of maternal food talk and whether maternal food talk and maternal food intake predicted childrens food intake during the protocol. Higher maternal body mass index (BMI) predicted lower amounts of food talk, pronoun use, and questions. Higher child BMI z-scores predicted more first person pronouns and more wh-questions within maternal food talk. Mothers of older children used fewer directives, fewer second person pronouns, and fewer yes/no questions. However, maternal food talk (overall and specific types of food talk) did not predict childrens food intake. Instead, the most robust predictor of childrens food intake during this protocol was the amount of food that mothers ate while sitting with their children. These findings emphasize the importance of modeling healthy eating through action and have implications for designing interventions to provide parents with more effective tools to promote their childrens healthy eating.

Selective eating behaviors in children: An observational validation of parental report measures

Selective eating in children is commonly measured by parental report questionnaires, yet it is unknown if parents accurately estimate their childs selective eating behavior. The objectives of this study were to test the validity and stability of two measures of selective eating using observed child behavior. Low-income mother-child dyads participated in a videotaped laboratory eating protocol at two time points (baseline: mean child age = 5.9 years; follow-up: mean child age = 8.6 years), during which they were presented with a familiar and an unfamiliar vegetable. Videos were reliably coded for child selective eating behaviors: amount consumed, child hedonic rating of vegetables, child compliance with maternal prompts to eat, latency to first bite, number of bites, and negative utterances. Mothers completed the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire Food Fussiness (CEBQ FF) scale and the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS) at both time points. Questionnaire validity, stability of measured behaviors, and discriminant validity of questionnaires were examined in the full sample. CEBQ FF scores and FNS scores were both inversely correlated with the quantity consumed, child hedonic rating, and compliance with prompts to eat for both familiar and unfamiliar vegetables at baseline and at follow up. CEBQ FF and FNS scores were inversely correlated with number of bites (for both foods), positively correlated with latency to first bite (for both foods), and inversely correlated with child negative utterances (for the familiar food only). Notably, FNS scores correlated with observed behavior for both familiar and unfamiliar foods, rather than demonstrating a specific association with unfamiliar foods only. This study supports the validity of the CEBQ FF and FNS in low-income early school-aged children.

Implicit attitudes, eating behavior, and the development of obesity

Nettle et al. describe increasing food intake (relative to energy expenditure) in response to food insecurity as a key contributor to obesity. I argue that a variety of implicit psychological mechanisms underlie this process to contribute to weight gain. The biobehavioral pathways and the social nature of food selection discussed here are importantly related to food selection and obesity.