Early Adolescents’ Food Selection After Evaluating the Healthiness of Remote Peers’ Food Choices

Abstract

This study investigates whether asking early adolescents to evaluate the food choices of remote peers improves their own food selection. Participants were students from fifth (N = 219, M age = 9.30 years) and sixth grades (N = 248, M age = 10.28 years) of varying nationalities living in the United Arab Emirates (race and ethnicity were not collected). Students saw peers' healthy or unhealthy food choices before picking their own food. In some conditions, students also critically evaluated the healthiness of the peers' choices. Evaluation of peer choices led to healthier decisions (d = .53) to the point that it offsets the negative impact of observing unhealthy peer choices. This effect is larger for sixth graders compared to fifth graders.According to the World Health Organization, over 340 million children and adolescents (aged 5-19 years) were classified as overweight or obese in 2016. The fraction of children and adolescents classified as overweight and obese has risen dramatically from just 4% in 1975 to just over 18% in 2016. Childhood obesity is associated with a wide range of severe health complications and an increased risk of premature onset of illnesses, including diabetes and heart disease. Without intervention, children and young adolescents classified as obese are likely to remain so throughout adolescence and adulthood. Since dietary habits are established at a young age, it is critical to identify effective public health strategies to address these issues in childhood (Haire-Joshu & Tabak, 2016).Among the factors driving children's eating behavior (for an extensive review, see DeCosta, Møller, Frøst, & Olsen, 2017), there is ample evidence showing that peer modeling affects eating behavior by providing a norm of appropriate food intake and information on food preferences. This is true for preschool children (Addessi, Galloway,