The influence of incentives on children s consumption of vegetables
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Epidemiology and Public Health
Abstract
The aim of this research project is to examine the effectiveness of incentives or rewards in child feeding with a view to improving the guidance given to parents in managing food refusal.
The diet of UK children is a source of great concern and evidence suggests that children growing up in the 1950s had healthier diets than the present generation who eat too much fat and sugar and far too few fruit and vegetables. This pattern of ‘modern malnutrition’ is a major contributing factor to the current epidemic of childhood obesity.
Parents report the frequent use of rewards to encourage their child to eat more healthily, but many feel that it is wrong to do so. This research project will explore the true impact of two types of reward (small and immediate, or tokens exchangeable for rewards at the end of the study) on children’s acceptance of vegetables compared with repeated tasting alone.
The results of the research will be disseminated to both academic and clinical audiences via conferences and papers in peer-reviewed journals, but will also be communicated to the public in the form of information leaflets distributed to health professionals or directly to parents, and as part of our existing training programmes for health workers.
The diet of UK children is a source of great concern and evidence suggests that children growing up in the 1950s had healthier diets than the present generation who eat too much fat and sugar and far too few fruit and vegetables. This pattern of ‘modern malnutrition’ is a major contributing factor to the current epidemic of childhood obesity.
Parents report the frequent use of rewards to encourage their child to eat more healthily, but many feel that it is wrong to do so. This research project will explore the true impact of two types of reward (small and immediate, or tokens exchangeable for rewards at the end of the study) on children’s acceptance of vegetables compared with repeated tasting alone.
The results of the research will be disseminated to both academic and clinical audiences via conferences and papers in peer-reviewed journals, but will also be communicated to the public in the form of information leaflets distributed to health professionals or directly to parents, and as part of our existing training programmes for health workers.
Technical Summary
The negative effect of poor nutrition on children?s health is well established. On average, children consume an excess of saturated fat and sugars and only half the quantity of fruit and vegetables recommended for good health. There is considerable concern amongst parents about their children?s diets and in particular, about intake of vegetables which, surveys indicate, are widely disliked. Parents employ a variety of strategies to encourage their children to ?eat their greens?, but the research evidence suggests that many are ineffective and some actually counter-productive.
One time-honoured and widely-employed tactic is the use of incentives or rewards. It is a central tenet of economics that ?incentives promote effort and performance? and positive reinforcement is used extensively in clinical and educational settings. Nevertheless, the longer-term value of extrinsic rewards remains controversial. Although rewards may increase the likelihood of behaviour in the short term, performance of that behaviour may be impaired over the long term extrinsic motivation undermines intrinsic motivation, resulting in a net decline in motivation on withdrawal of the reward. Experimental studies in the food domain have given some support for this idea and have often shown even if rewards increase consumption while they are being administered, underlying liking actually decreases. Our own research found that rewarding consumption of a vegetable increased liking for vegetables, but less than when we used simple tasting or ?exposure? alone. However, inconsistencies predominate in the literature, and establishing the true benefit of rewards in child feeding is overdue.
We propose to carry out two studies to investigate the impact of incentives on liking and consumption of vegetables in 4-6 year-old children. The first of these will be a school-based experimental study with four conditions, to compare the effects of immediate reward, token reinforcement and ?mere exposure? with a no treatment control. A second study will extend the paradigm to a naturalistic setting by investigating the impact of these same strategies when carried out by parents in the home. The aim of these studies will be to establish the type and timing of reward that is most effective and assess how its impact compares with that of tasting without reinforcement.
An important long term contribution of this research will be to improve the child feeding advice given to parents. Scientifically-based guidance in this area is in great demand from both health professionals and parents themselves.
One time-honoured and widely-employed tactic is the use of incentives or rewards. It is a central tenet of economics that ?incentives promote effort and performance? and positive reinforcement is used extensively in clinical and educational settings. Nevertheless, the longer-term value of extrinsic rewards remains controversial. Although rewards may increase the likelihood of behaviour in the short term, performance of that behaviour may be impaired over the long term extrinsic motivation undermines intrinsic motivation, resulting in a net decline in motivation on withdrawal of the reward. Experimental studies in the food domain have given some support for this idea and have often shown even if rewards increase consumption while they are being administered, underlying liking actually decreases. Our own research found that rewarding consumption of a vegetable increased liking for vegetables, but less than when we used simple tasting or ?exposure? alone. However, inconsistencies predominate in the literature, and establishing the true benefit of rewards in child feeding is overdue.
We propose to carry out two studies to investigate the impact of incentives on liking and consumption of vegetables in 4-6 year-old children. The first of these will be a school-based experimental study with four conditions, to compare the effects of immediate reward, token reinforcement and ?mere exposure? with a no treatment control. A second study will extend the paradigm to a naturalistic setting by investigating the impact of these same strategies when carried out by parents in the home. The aim of these studies will be to establish the type and timing of reward that is most effective and assess how its impact compares with that of tasting without reinforcement.
An important long term contribution of this research will be to improve the child feeding advice given to parents. Scientifically-based guidance in this area is in great demand from both health professionals and parents themselves.