The role of learning in food preference Flashcards
Parental influences
One way children acquire their eating behaviour and attitudes to food is by observing the behaviour of their parents. Research shows an association between parents and children’s attitudes to food generally. For example Brown and Ogden reported consistent correlation between parents and their children in terms of snack food intake, eating motivations and body dissatisfaction. Parents may also manipulate the availability of food either as a reward or because of other perceived health gain. They may also offer one food as a reward for eating of another. This approach is not successful as research from Birch has generally shown that although the preference for the food used as the reward increases, there tends to be a decrease in the preference for distasteful food.
Peer influences
Social learning theory emphasises the impact of observing other people on our own attitude and behaviour. The behaviour of same age peers in particular has been found to have a powerful influence on the food preferences of children. For example, Greenhalgh found that the observation of peers had both positive and negative effects on food preferences. Children who were exposed to positive modelling were more likely to try these food themselves. However, negative modelling also had an effect on children as a inhibited novel food consumption. Birch showed the exposure to another child could change food preferences. In this study for four consecutive lunchtime, children was seated next to other children who preferred a different vegetable to the one they preferred. At the end of the four days, these children show a change in their vegetable preference that was still evident and to follow-up several weeks later.
Media effects
The role of social learning is also evident in the impact of television and other media on food preferences. McIntyre found that the media have a major impact both on what people eat and the attitudes to certain foods. However, the research is also state that many eating behaviours unlimited by personal circumstances, such as age, income, and family circumstances. Thus, people appear to learn from the media about healthy eating, but must place this information within the border context of their lives for example what they can afford and what is freely available.
The context of meals
In societies like the USA and the UK, grazing rather than eating meals and the desire for convenience foods are increasingly common. As a result, people learn to rely on takeaway meals other way of feeding themselves. Recent study by Maguire found that in the UK the number of takeaway restaurants has risen by 45% in the last 18 years, with areas of the highest deprivation seen the highest wise. Gilman commented on the decline of the family meal in Western cultures, with a more young people choosing to eat while watching television. Eating meals in front of the TV was associated with a greater consumption of pizza and salty snacks and less consumption of fruit and vegetables. The researchers suggest that eating more informally leads to a learn preference for quickly prepared food rather than more elaborate meals. Parents whose children watched more television choose foods that were easy to prepare because children usually ate them without complaint.
Evaluation – limitations of the parental influence view
A problem for our understanding of the role of parental influences on food preferences is that research in this area is quite limited. Typically studies have been small scale and carried out on a highly selective sample of white Americans. This means that we are unclear as to whether these findings can be generalised to other populations. For example, Robinson studied nearly 800 8 to 9 year old children from a number of different backgrounds, their research revealed a complex association between the behaviour of parents and the food preferences of children, with girls being more influenced by parental modelling and control then were boys.
Not all parental influences are effective
Russell interviewed parents of children aged 2 to 5 years old about the methods they used to influence the foods their children liked and disliked. The research is discovered that not all the methods used were effective in influencing food preferences in these children. Some of the methods used such as parental modelling and food exposure were found to be effective in promoting healthy eating, whilst others such as forcing consumption or restricting food access were ineffective. Parents of children with healthy food preferences were more likely to use the effective feeding then were parents of children with unhealthy food preferences. This supports the claim that children do learn food preferences from their parents, but that some approaches regarding influence are more effective than others.
Research support for media influences on food preferences
Boyland and Halford provided supporting evidence the exposure to food advertising on television influences food preferences and actual food intake in children. However, they also found that influences children of different weight statuses in different ways, with adverts for high food in fact, salt, and sugar having a particularly strong influence on overweight and obese children. The relationship between media exposure and food preferences was further supported by the fact that children who had the greatest preference for high carbohydrate and high fat foods were also the ones that watch the most television.
Real world application – implications of media influences on food preferences
Research is shown that television appears to be the dominant medium for children’s exposure to food marketing, with the majority of such marketing beef unhealthy foods (Cairns). This has led to a number of countries developing regulations concerning unhealthy food advertising on television. These typically focus unlimited the quantity of advertising unhealthy food to children or on reducing the effect of such advertising on children. For example, the use of promotional characters and offers or making nutritional health claims to promote food to children on TV is already restricted by government in some countries.
