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A Field Experiment Examining Mindfulness on Eating Enjoyment and Behavior in Children

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Abstract

The practice of mindfulness appears effective in promoting adaptive eating patterns in adolescents and adults. However, despite significant data suggesting that maladaptive eating patterns emerge at a very early age, there is a dearth of research examining the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions in promoting healthy eating patterns with young children. Sixty-five children across four school research sites participated in the present experiment to examine whether mindfulness promotes eating enjoyment and diverse eating behaviors in preschool- and early elementary-aged children. Children, ages 3–10 years old, were randomly assigned to a 4-week mindfulness intervention condition or a 4-week exposure, control condition. Each week for 4 days, children received one of four different foods (celery, cauliflower, kidney beans, or garbanzo beans). Children either received instructions to mindfully engage with the food or were given the food and allowed to eat without mindfulness prompts from the researchers. Following each eating exercise, children participants recorded the amount eaten and rated their enjoyment level. Across all sessions and both conditions, group leaders modeled eating behaviors for the children by eating all of the offered food. Results suggested that a brief mindfulness intervention promotes more overall food consumption of typically not preferred and unfamiliar foods (celery, cauliflower, and garbanzo beans) compared with an exposure, control condition. However, food enjoyment ratings did not significantly differ between the two conditions for any of the foods.

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Acknowledgements

All data were collected in collaboration with: The Children’s School—Appleton, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Children’s Center, Alliance Charter Elementary School, and Read Elementary School/YMCA-Oshkosh. We thank the principals/directors, teachers, the children, and their parents for the study was only accomplished with their help and support. Thank you to Caileigh Zimmerman and Danica Kulibert for their contributions to the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, 800 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, WI, 54901, USA

    Phan Y. Hong, Matthew D. Hanson, David A. Lishner, Shelby L. Kelso & Steven W. Steinert

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  1. Phan Y. Hong
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  2. Matthew D. Hanson
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  3. David A. Lishner
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  4. Shelby L. Kelso
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  5. Steven W. Steinert
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Contributions

PYH: designed and executed the study, assisted with data analyses, and wrote the paper. MDH: assisted with designing and executing the study, assisted with the literature review, and assisted with formatting the paper. DAL: collaborated with the designing of the study, conducted the data analyses, and assisted with writing the paper. SLK: assisted with executing the study and assisted with the literature review. SWS: assisted with executing the study and assisted with the literature review.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Phan Y. Hong.

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Conflict of Interest

Phan Y. Hong received summer funding from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Office of Faculty Development and Grants to complete this study during the summer months. No external funding was received for the study. The second and fourth author, Matthew Hanson and Shelby Kelso, received some university funding to aid in the study design and data collection of this study.

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

In accordance with the university’s IRB, informed consent was obtained from the parents of the children and verbal assent was obtained from the children participants in the study.

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Hong, P.Y., Hanson, M.D., Lishner, D.A. et al. A Field Experiment Examining Mindfulness on Eating Enjoyment and Behavior in Children. Mindfulness 9, 1748–1756 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0916-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0916-1

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