M.D. Condrasky

Chefs’ Opinions of Restaurant Portion Sizes

Objectives: The objectives were to determine who establishes restaurant portion sizes and factors that influence these decisions, and to examine chefs’ opinions regarding portion size, nutrition information, and weight management.

Parent-reported Social Support for Child's Fruit and Vegetable Intake: Validity of Measures

OBJECTIVE To develop and validate measures of parental social support to increase their childs fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption. DESIGN Cross-sectional study design. SETTING School and home. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred three parents with at least 1 elementary school-aged child. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Parents completed a questionnaire that included instrumental social support scale (ISSPS), emotional social support scale (ESSPS), household FV availability and accessibility index, and demographics. ANALYSIS Exploratory factor analysis with promax rotation was conducted to obtain the psychometric properties of ISSPS and ESSPS. Internal consistency and test-retest reliabilities were also assessed. RESULTS Factor analysis indicated a 4-factor model for ESSPS: positive encouragement, negative role modeling, discouragement, and an item cluster called reinforcement. Psychometric properties indicated that ISSPS performed best as independent single scales with α = .87. Internal consistency reliabilities were acceptable, and test-retest reliabilities ranged from low to acceptable. Correlations between scales, subscales, and item clusters were significant (P < .05). In addition, ISSPS and the positive encouragement subscale were significantly correlated with household FV availability. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS The ISSPS and ESSPS subscales demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and are suitable for impact assessment of an intervention designed to target parents to help their children eat more fruit and vegetables.

Using Student-Produced Media to Promote Healthy Eating A Pilot Study on the Effects of a Media and Nutrition Intervention

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention in which fourth and fifth graders participated in an after-school program where they produced a media campaign that focused on increasing fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption. Researchers measured the effectiveness of the media campaign in changing the home nutrition environment (e.g., FV availability and parental support). Quantitative and qualitative measures were also used to evaluate the effect of the intervention on the childrens self-efficacy, motivation, and perceived parental social support related to FV consumption. Data from the parents indicated greater availability of FV at home and more instrumental support for their children to eat FV.