Diet & Health News Emotional Eating Obesity

How Friendship Influences Eating Behavior

August 5, 2009
By J White

Childhood obesity is an epidemic in the United States and in other industrialized nations, and according to a new study, social factors play a major role. The study found that the mere presence of friends may put overweight youths at a greater risk of overeating.

The results of the research found that friends may act as so called “permission givers” on children’s food intake. According to researcher Sarah Salvy, Ph.D., these results are important when you consider the role friends play as agents of change during childhood and adolescence.

Dr. Salvy also said that overweight children are more likely to find food a more reinforcing factor in their lives than non-overweight youth, and that simply being in the company of other overweight peers may give them the permission to eat more. This may decrease their inhibitions, and thus increasing what they see as a normal pattern of appropriate eating, or how much one should eat.

To conduct the research, the study used 23 overweight and 42 normal weight children between the ages of 9 and 15. The children were to randomly participate with either a friend or an unfamiliar person of a similar age. After this selection, there were 33 friend pairs and 39 “unfamiliar” pairs.

Before participating in the experiment, the children were ask to list what they had eaten in the past 24 hours, to make sure they hadn’t eaten anything during the previous two hours, and to rate their hunger level.

During the study, the paired children spent 45 minutes in a room furnished with games, puzzles, and individual bowls of low-calorie, “nutrient dense” baby carrots and grapes, and high-calorie “energy-dense” potato chips and cookies. While in the room, the children were told that they could eat as much or as little as they wanted, but were asked to eat from their own bowls only.

Observation of them were made via recording on a closed-circuit television. After the session, the noneaten snacks were weighed to determine how much food each child had consumed.

The results showed that friends who were paired together consumed more food than participants who were paired with someone they did not know. In addition, findings showed that friends were more likely to eat similar amounts than participants paired with a stranger.

However, overweight children who were paired with an overweight peer, regardless of whether or not he or she was friend or stranger, ate more than the overweight participants who were paired with a normal weight youth.

Salvy said that their findings indicated that both overweight and normal weight participants who ate with a friend, ate significantly more than did participants eating in the presence of an unfamiliar peer, which is consistent with findings conducted on adults.

Thus, given the impact friends have on eating behavior, it appears that if change in the obesity epidemic among children is to change, friends and family need to be involved. Salvy also said that if the environment in which children live doesn’t change, meaning family meals remaining high in calories with overeating being the norm, any progress that the children may make in their eating behavior will not last.

Source:
University at Buffalo (2009, August 5). Friendship Influences Eating Behavior, Particularly When Friends Are Overweight. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 5, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/08/090803185718.htm

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