Background Media exposure affects health, including obesity risk. Children’s movies often contain food placements—frequently unhealthy foods. However, it is not known if these cues influence children’s food choices or consumption after viewing. We explored whether children’s snack choices or consumption differs based on: 1) recent exposure to movies with high versus low product placement of unhealthy foods; and 2) children’s weight status. Methods Children ages 9–11 were assigned to watch a high (“Alvin and the Chipmunks,” n=54) or low (“Stuart Little,” n=60) product-placement movie. After viewing, participants selected a snack choice from each of five categories, several of which were specifically featured in “Alvin.” Uneaten snacks from each participant were weighed upon completion. Snack choice and amount consumed by movie were compared by t-tests, and differences in snack choices by movie were tested with logistic regression. Results Participants consumed an average of 800.8 kcal; mean kcal eaten did not vary by movie watched. Participants who watched the high product-placement movie had 3.1 times the odds (95% CI 1.3–7.2) of choosing cheese balls (most featured snack) compared to participants who watched the low product-placement movie. Children who were overweight or obese consumed a mean of 857 kcal (95% CI: 789–925) compared to 783 kcal (95% CI: 742–823, p=0.09) for children who were underweight or healthy weight. Children’s weight status did not significantly affect their choice of snack. Conclusions Branding and obesogenic messaging in children’s movies influenced some choices that children made about snack foods immediately following viewing, especially food with greatest exposure time in the film, but did not affect total calories consumed. Future studies should examine how the accumulation of these messages affects children’s long-term food choices.

Objective:Little is known about the concordance of parent and child reports of children's media consumption, even though parents are often asked to report for their children in clinical care settings. We aimed to understand how parent and child reports of children's media consumption differ in an era of changing screen media consumption via personal devices. Methods:As part of a larger study about the reception of health-related cues from children's media, children ages 9 to 11 (N=114) and their parents independently completed identical questionnaires about specific media use and health behaviors. To examine concordance between child and parent reports of children's screen media use, we calculated mean number of minutes per day and proportions reported by the child and parent, and assessed concordance with t-tests and chi-square tests.Results: On a typical day, children reported nearly an hour each of video and app game use, computer use, and television exposure. Overall, child and parent reports were similar, usually

No abstract

Implicit bias toward overweight individuals is evident in children aged 9 to 11 years with a magnitude of implicit bias (5.4%) similar to that in studies of implicit racial bias among adults.

No abstract