This Scientific Statement addresses Parents and Adult Caregivers (PACs) as ‘agents of change’ for obese children. Evidence is reviewed to support the notion that PACs can leverage behavior change and reduce positive energy balance in obese youth, and research opportunities for the field are...

Extraverted children are hypothesized to be most at risk for over-serving and overeating due to environmental cues – such as the size of dinnerware. A within-subject field study of elementary school students found that extraverted children served themselves 33.1% more cereal in larger bowls...

Effective and simple screening tools are needed to detect behaviors that are established early in life and have a significant influence on weight gain later in life. Crowdsourcing could be a novel and potentially useful tool to assess childhood predictors of adult obesity. This exploratory study...

Nearly 1/3 of children between ages 6 and 19 are considered obese and their choosing of less healthy foods in school lunchrooms may contribute. To encourage students to select healthier foods, recent research has focused on how environmental changes and behavioral economics can guide children to...

Objective: What predicts whether a child will be at risk for obesity? Whereas past research has focused on foods and eating habits, this study departs from a food-centric approach to examine how various dinner rituals might influence the BMIs of children and adults. Methods: In this study of 190...

Objective: Because younger children lack the motor skills required to serve themselves without spilling, adults often ask children how much they would like to eat and then serve the requested amount onto bowls. Previous research shows that larger bowls biases adults towards serving themselves...

Extraverted children are hypothesized to be most at risk for over-serving and overeating due to environmental cues – such as the size of dinnerware. A within-subject field study of elementary school students found that extraverted children served themselves 33.1% more cereal in larger bowls...

Until recently, obesity has largely been viewed as a personal issue. However, in 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a wake-up call to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity. At that time 40 million Americans were considered obese, and this was contributing to $99.2 billion in estimated...

Fast food patronage is a frequent reality for many children and their parents. Although there are increasingly healthier options being offered as alternatives for regular menu items (apple slices instead of French fries), they are seldom selected by the children. We investigated whether either...