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Brief Report: Mealtime Behaviors of Chinese American Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

This study investigated mealtime behaviors of Chinese-American children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Thirty-one parents of Chinese-American children with ASD participated in this study and the Brief Autism Mealtime Behavior Inventory (BAMBI) was used. The top problematic mealtime behaviors reported by parents were prefers “crunchy” food (54.2%); not willing to try new foods (48%); and does not remain seated at the table until the meal is finished (46%). This study found that the majority of the Chinese-American children with ASD seldom or never were aggressive (96%) or disruptive during mealtimes (92.3%). Compared to their white counterparts, Chinese-American children with ASD showed slightly lower scores on problematic mealtime behaviors. These findings may provide significant information to practitioners.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all participants and staff from the Center for All Abilities for assisting the study.

Funding

There was no funding support for this project. All participation in this research was completely voluntary.

Author Contributions

HLG participated in conceiving of the study and its design; she also collected, analyzed, and interpreted the data, and drafted/revised the manuscript; HC participated in the study design and coordination of the study, interpreting the data, and drafting/revising the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program in Nutrition, Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College Columbia University, 525 W 120th Street, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Heewon Lee Gray

  2. Faculty of Education, University of Macau, E33-1010, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macau, China

    Hsu-Min Chiang

Authors
  1. Heewon Lee Gray
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  2. Hsu-Min Chiang
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Correspondence to Heewon Lee Gray.

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Conflict of interest

Gray HL and Chiang H declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

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.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Gray, H.L., Chiang, HM. Brief Report: Mealtime Behaviors of Chinese American Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 892–897 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2993-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2993-0

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