Aston University research finds that social media can be used to increase fruit and vegetable intake in young people
The research team asked one group of participants to follow healthy eating accounts and another to follow interior design accounts After just two weeks, participants following healthy eating accounts ate more fruit and vegetables and less junk food Even minor tweaks to social media accounts could result in substantial diet improvements in young adults. Researchers from Aston University have found that people following healthy eating accounts on social media for as little as two weeks ate more fruit and vegetables and less junk food.
Previous research has shown that positive social norms about fruit and vegetables increases individuals’ consumption. The research team sought to investigate whether positive representation of healthier food on social media would have the same effect. The research was led by Dr Lily Hawkins, whose PhD study it was, supervised by Dr Jason Thomas and Professor Claire Farrow in the School of Psychology.
The researchers recruited 52 volunteers, all social media users, with a mean age of 22, and split them into two groups. Volunteers in the first group, known as the intervention group, were asked to follow healthy eating Instagram accounts in addition to their usual accounts. Volunteers in the second group, known as the control group, were asked to follow interior design accounts. The experiment lasted two weeks, and the volunteers recorded what they ate and drank during the time period.
Overall, participants following the healthy eating accounts ate an extra 1.4 portions of fruit and vegetables per day and 0.8 fewer energy dense items, such as high-calorie snacks and sugar-sweetened drinks, per day. This is a substantial improvement compared to previous educational and social media-based interventions attempting to improve diets.
Dr Thomas and the team believe affiliation is a key component of the change in eating behaviour. For example, the effect was more pronounced amongst participants who felt affiliated with other Instagram users.
The 2018 NHS Health Survey for England study showed that only 28% of the UK population consumed the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. Low consumption of such food is linked to heart disease, cancer and stroke, so identifying ways to encourage higher consumption is vital. Exposing people to positive social norms, using posters in canteens encouraging vegetable consumption, or in bars to discourage dangerous levels of drinking, have been shown to work. Social media is so prevalent now that the researchers believe it could be an ideal way to spread positive social norms around high fruit and vegetable consumption, particularly amongst younger people.
Dr Thomas said:
“This is only a pilot intervention study at the moment, but it’s quite an exciting suite of findings, as it suggests that even some minor tweaks to our social media accounts might lead to substantial improvements in diet, at zero cost! Our future work will examine whether such interventions actually do change our perceptions of what others are consuming, and also, whether these interventions produce effects that are sustained over time.”
Dr Hawkins, who is now at the University of Exeter, said:
“Our previous research has demonstrated that social norms on social media may nudge food consumption, but this pilot demonstrates that this translates to the real world. Of course, we would like to now understand whether this can be replicated in a larger, community sample.”
Digital Health DOI: 10.1177/20552076241241262
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Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment hosts showcase event to highlight research expertise
Research showcase held to highlight research underway at the Aston Institute for Health and Neurodevelopment Researchers met with local clinicians and funding bodies to talk through their latest developments The event will take place each year with a plan to invite guests back to update them on how the institute has progressed. Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment (IHN) held its inaugural research showcase event on Thursday 7 July at Conference Aston.
The yearly event is an opportunity to highlight its research projects and meet with the Institute’s external partners, funding bodies and professional colleagues.
Guests were invited to join IHN’s research and teaching team to learn more about its vision and hear about individual research projects currently underway.
The centre’s co-directors Professor Jackie Blissett and Professor Gavin Woodhall talked about IHN’s vision which includes:
unlocking the potential of research to support child health and development
answering the questions that matter to children and young people, their families and the services that support them
developing the next generation of research leaders in child health and development.
Researchers working on projects including treatments for drug resistant epilepsy, childhood eating behaviour, improving support for people with rare neurogenetic conditions and diagnosis of paediatric brain cancer using magnetic resonance imaging and artificial intelligence met with external partners and clinicians to talk them through their latest projects and developments.
The event was also attended by Aston University Interim Vice-Chancellor, Saskia Loer Hansen, Executive Dean of the College of Health and Life Sciences, Anthony Hilton and other members of the University executive team, together with academic researchers in the University’s College of Health and Life Sciences.
There was also an opportunity to meet all the Institute’s researchers, ask questions and network.
Professor Jackie Blissett, co-director of Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment, said: “After a successful launch of our new £2.8 million MRI scanner earlier this year, it is great that we were able to come together again and showcase all of our research that goes on in IHN, particularly to our external partners, including local clinicians and funding bodies. “This is our inaugural research showcase and we plan to invite guests back to Aston University each year to update them on how the institute has progressed with its research. “As a research institute that puts children and young people at the heart of what we do, it is important to be in touch with all of our partners from a cross section of the community to update them on all of our latest developments and find ways to collaborate further – particularly in clinical settings.” For more information about research being undertaken at AIHN please go to our website. If you are interested in the courses we have available in this area please go here.
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3 min
Pre-school children’s emotional eating partly shaped by innate food drive - research
New research at Aston University is helping to unpick the complex connections between the eating habits of children and their mothers.
The research, by PhD student Rebecca Stone, surveyed 185 mothers of young children aged between three and five, asking about their eating habits and those of their children. The findings are published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Children pick up lots of behaviours by copying their parents – and this is true of their eating habits as well. The aim of the new research was to see how much of children’s emotional eating is explained by the way mothers use food as part of their parenting practices as well as the children’s own attitudes to food more generally.
‘Emotional eating’ is when we turn to food, such as cakes, chocolate and snacks, not because we’re hungry but to compensate for when we’re feeling sad, low or anxious. The survey included questions for mothers about how much they and their children ate in response to emotional states. It also asked about how much children were motivated by food and driven to eat or ask for food throughout the day, which is known as ‘food approach’ behaviour.
Stone also asked mothers about the feeding practices that they used with their children – in particular about whether they used food to reward children for good behaviour, or visibly restricted their child’s access to foods, for example having foods in the house but forbidding them. These practices have been shown to make children more interested in food and have also been linked to greater emotional eating in children.
When Stone analysed the responses, she found that children who were very motivated by food were more likely to pick up emotional eating behaviour from their parents. Stone used a complex statistical method, known as moderated mediation analysis, to decipher how the different aspects of the relationship interacted: emotional eating in the mother, how she parented the child around food, the child’s food approach tendencies and emotional eating.
Professor Claire Farrow, who was one of Stone’s PhD supervisors at Aston University, said: “This study demonstrates that the way that children develop eating behaviours is very complex, and that emotional eating appears to be shaped in part by an innate drive towards food. "In this study we found that parenting practices interact with children’s eating tendencies and that children who are the most driven to approach food are the most influenced by feeding practices that can lead to emotional eating. These findings suggest that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to child feeding isn’t always appropriate and that some children are more susceptible to the influence of behaviours that can lead to emotional eating.” Stone agreed: “Our findings suggest that children who were more motivated to eat were more predisposed to associate food with emotions. Our research supports the idea that emotional eating is a learned behaviour which children often develop in pre-school years, but that some children are more vulnerable to developing emotional eating than others” Although common amongst parents, the research also highlights that using food as a reward or visibly restricting the child’s access to certain foods even in children as young as three – can be problematic. Giving a piece of chocolate as a reward or telling children they can only have one biscuit as a ‘treat’ is likely to create an emotional response in the child which they then connect to those foods.
Stone said: “The research suggests that restricting food in front of children who are already more motivated by food tends to backfire and makes children crave restricted foods even more. What seems to work best is known as ‘covert restriction’ not letting children know that some foods are restricted (for example, not buying foods that you do not want your child to eat) and avoiding instances where you have to tell children that they are not allowed certain foods.” The researchers suggest parents looking for practical advice on healthy eating and fussy eating should check out the Child Feeding Guide, a free online resource created by Professor Claire Farrow, Professor Emma Haycraft & Dr Gemma Witcomb at Aston and Loughborough Universities.
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Media
Social
Biography
Dr Claire Farrow is interested in the factors that influence eating behaviour and weight gain or weight loss, particularly in children. She has expertise in longitudinal research and in using observational and experimental designs. Claire is particularly interested in the impact of parental feeding practices on children’s food preferences and in the role of family mealtimes. She is interested in the development of eating behaviour and weight in Low and Middle Income Countries and is currently collaborating with partners in Kenya and Zambia. Claire has expertise in using digital interventions to support child eating behaviour and has co-developed the 'Child Feeding Guide' website and training resource for parents and professionals and 'Vegetable Maths Masters' app for children and teachers to support healthy eating behaviour.
Claire is a Chartered Psychologist, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
Areas of Expertise
Observational Research
Child Obesity
Child Eating Behaviour
Fussy Eating
Digital Health Interventions
Accomplishments
Nominated for the Rosalind Franklin Appathon Competition
2016
Highly Commended for the Best App for the Child Feeding Guide, Loughborough University
2015
Winner of Social Enterprise Award for the Child Feeding Guide, Loughborough University
2014
Highly Commended for the Intellectual Property Award for the Child Feeding Guide, Loughborough University
2014
Astonishing Academic Award
2014, 2015 & 2016 Nominated/ won Astonishing Academic Awards (most supportive academic, best personal tutor, and most motivational academic, Life and Health Sciences, Aston University).
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Education
University of Birmingham
PhD
Psychology
2005
University of Birmingham
BSc
Psychology
2001
Affiliations
UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowships (UKRI FLF) Programme : Member
Senior Fellowship of Higher Education Academy : RITE Mentor
Higher Education Academy : Senior Fellow
British Psychological Society : Associate Fellow
Midlands Universities Children and Infants eating Group : Committee Member
National Steering Group for Children’s Feeding : Committee Member
"It's good for you". "Eat your greens". "Oh come on - you liked it yesterday". For those of us who are parents this might sound all too familiar. Five-a-day – it can be difficult to get one-a-day into the mouth of a fussy eater, or even one a week for that matter. And as healthcare professionals it can be a challenge too.
Fussy eaters, Parliament that works for women, Passing for white, Terri White - editor-in-chief Empire magazine
BBC Sounds online
2020-07-03
What do you do when your toddler is a fussy eater? A guide for parents about fussy eating which has been available for over ten years, has just been re-evaluated by 25 mothers. Jenni hears from Amanda, a mother of two daughters, plus one of the academics behind the guide, Claire Farrow, Professor in Children's Eating Behaviour at Aston University, Birmingham.
Fussy eating—and parents' stress—remedied by online guide
Medical Xpress online
2020-07-02
Professor Claire Farrow, from Aston University, said:
"Many parents report that they worry about their child's health suffering from fussy eating, or that their children won't eat healthily in the future. What we're doing with the Child Feeding Guide is reassuring parents that this is very common and children do tend to grow out of fussy eating, but also that they can influence their child's eating by using an evidence-based approach."
Professor Claire Farrow, Director of Aston University's Applied Health Research Group whose work has contributed to the national Child Feeding Guide resource, added:
"With children and young people spending a huge amount of time interacting with peers and influencers via social media, the important new findings from this study could help shape how we deliver interventions that help them adopt healthy eating habits from a young age - and stick with them for life."
The end of fussy children? New smartphone game helps youngsters eat their greens by linking vegetables with rewards
Daily Mail online
2018-08-03
Dr Claire Farrow, Aston University said: 'We have developed an app which draws on psychological research to integrate different methods known to increase interest in vegetables and eagerness to try them.
A school closer to home: the role of mealtimes in fostering language development and aligning home and school learning in rural Kenya and Zambia
UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund: Education as a Driver of Development Research Grant
2019 - 2021 £978,491 Shapiro, L., Farrow, C., Wadende, P., Matthews, D., Mooya, H. & Anyango Koteng, G.
Vegetable Maths Masters evaluation
Strategic Partnership Funding, Aston University
2020 Farrow, C.
A Longitudinal Evaluation of the Impact of Digital Games for Increasing Acceptance of Green Vegetables Over Time
Aston University LHS Impact Fund
2019 - 2020 Farrow, C.
Understanding How Complementary Feeding Method Longitudinally Affects Developmental Outcomes in Young Children
Italian Ministry for Education and Research
2019 - 2022 €483,17 Addessi, E as PI in Italy, with Farrow, C & Galloway
Exploring Language Use at Family Mealtimes in Kenya; Lessons for Early Child Development and Education Centers
International Visiting Scholar Fund, Aston University
2019 Farrow, C., & Shapiro, L.
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Articles
Do perceived norms of social media users’ eating habits and preferences predict our own food consumption and BMI?
Appetite
Lily K Hawkins, Claire Farrow, Jason M Thomas
2020-06-01
In laboratory studies, exposure to social norm messages conveying the typical eating behaviour of others has influenced participants' own consumption of food. Given the widespread use of social media, it is plausible that we are implicitly exposed to norms in our wider social circles, and that these influence our eating behaviour, and potentially, Body Mass Index (BMI). This study examined whether four perceived norms (perceived descriptive, injunctive, liking and frequency norms) about Facebook users' eating habits and preferences predicted participants' own food consumption and BMI. In a cross-sectional survey, men and women university students (n = 369; mean age = 22.1 years; mean BMI = 23.7) were asked to report their perceptions of Facebook users' consumption of, and preferences for, fruit, vegetables, energy-dense snacks and sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs), their own consumption of and preferences for these foods, and their BMI. Multiple linear regression revealed that perceived descriptive norms and perceived frequency norms about Facebook users' fruit and vegetable consumption were significant positive predictors of participants' own fruit and vegetable consumption (both ps < .01). Conversely, perceived injunctive norms about Facebook users' energy-dense snack and SSB consumption were significant positive predictors of participants’ own snack and SSB consumption (both ps < .05). However, perceived norms did not significantly predict BMI (all ps > .05). These findings suggest that perceived norms concerning actual consumption (descriptive and frequency) and norms related to approval (injunctive) may guide consumption of low and high energy-dense foods and beverages differently. Further work is required to establish whether these perceived norms also affect dietary behaviour over time.
Making connections: Social identification with new treatment groups for lifestyle management of severe obesity
Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy
Sammyh S. Khan, Mark Tarrant, Katarina Kos, Mark Daly, Chloe Gimbuta, Claire V. Farrow
2020-04-08
Groups are regularly used to deliver healthcare services, including the management of obesity, and there is growing evidence that patients' experiences of such groups fundamentally shape treatment effects. This study investigated factors related to patients' shared social identity formed within the context of a treatment group for the management of severe obesity. A cross‐sectional survey was administered to patients registered with a UK medical obesity service and enrolled on a group‐based education and support programme. Patients (N = 78; M BMI = 48 on entry to the service) completed measures of group demographics (e.g., group membership continuity) and psychosocial variables (e.g., past experiences of weight discrimination) and reported their social identification with the treatment group. The results showed that patients identified with the treatment group to the extent that there was continuity in membership across the programme and they perceived themselves more centrally in terms of their weight status. Weight centrality was negatively associated with external social support and positively associated with experiences of weight discrimination. Group continuity was positively correlated with session attendance frequency. Patients presenting to clinical treatment services with severe obesity often do so after sustained weight loss failure and exposure to negative societal experiences. This study highlights that providing a treatment environment wherein these experiences can be shared with other patients may provide common ground for development of a new, positive social identity that can structure programme engagement and progression.
Unpacking the relationships between positive feeding practices and children's eating behaviours: The moderating role of child temperament
Appetite
Clare E Holley, Emma Haycraft, Claire Farrow
2020-04-01
Evidence suggests that children's eating behaviours are influenced by the feeding practices which parents employ. Furthermore, parents may alter the feeding practices they use according to their child's temperament. However, there is a paucity of literature on how children's temperament moderates the relationship between parents' use of feeding practices and children's eating behaviours. One hundred and eleven mothers of 2 to 4-year-old children completed questionnaire measures of their feeding practices along with their child's eating behaviours and temperament. Two-tailed Spearman's correlations revealed that mothers' use of a range of positive (health promoting) feeding practices was associated with greater enjoyment of food and lower food fussiness among children. Moderation analyses found that relationships between mothers involving their children in food choice and preparation and children's eating behaviours were moderated by children's temperament. Involvement in food choice and preparation was no longer associated with higher enjoyment of food and lower fussiness for children who were either highly emotional or low in sociability. These findings suggest that while many previously identified positive feeding practices may be associated with more healthy eating for all children, some may be less helpful or less achievable with children who have particular temperamental traits. Future research should seek to develop interventions to promote healthy eating which are tailored towards children's individual characteristics.
Weight-management in children living with asthma: a qualitative study of the experiences of paediatric healthcare professionals
Journal of Asthma
Rebecca Clarke, Gemma Heath, Helen Pattison, Claire Farrow
2018-11-16
Objective: Weight loss has been found to improve the symptoms of asthma in children who are overweight. However, many paediatric weight management programmes do not address the challenges associated with living with asthma. The aim of this study was to explore the views and experiences of paediatric healthcare professionals concerning weight management advice and support offered to families of children living with asthma. Methods: In-depth individual interviews with 10 healthcare professionals who work with a paediatric asthma population (n = 4 Respiratory Consultants, 3 Respiratory Nurses, 3 General Paediatricians). Data were analysed using a Framework approach. Results: Healthcare professionals highlighted that families’ perceptions of weight, their approach to physical activity and nutrition, the family’s social context and perceptions of asthma and asthma treatment all influence weight management in children living with asthma. Initiating weight management conversations and referring to weight management support were perceived as challenging. It was thought that tailoring weight management to the needs of children living with asthma and locating support within the community were important to the success of a family-centred intervention. Conclusions: The results highlight the added complexity of responding to excessive weight in a paediatric population with asthma. Training and referral guidance for healthcare professionals may help overcome weight management support challenges. Addressing family beliefs about the factors influencing paediatric asthma and exploring families’ motivations for behaviour change may enhance engagement with weight management.
Using repeated visual exposure, rewards and modelling in a mobile application to increase vegetable acceptance in children
Appetite
Claire Farrow, Esme Belcher, Helen Coulthard, Jason M Thomas, Joanna Lumsden, Lilit Hakobyan, Emma Haycraft
2019-10-01
Children are not consuming the recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables. Repeated visual exposure, modelling, and rewards have been shown to be effective at increasing vegetable acceptance in young children. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an evidence-based mobile application (Vegetable Maths Masters) which builds on these principles to increase children's liking and acceptance of vegetables. Seventy-four children (37 male, 37 female) aged 3–6 years old were randomised to play with either the vegetable app or a similar control app that did not include any foods. Children played their allocated game for 10 min. Liking and acceptance of the vegetables used in Vegetable Maths Masters (carrot and sweetcorn) and other vegetables which were not used in the game (yellow pepper and tomato) were measured pre- and post-play in both groups. Parents provided data about their child's food fussiness and previous exposure to the foods being used. Children who played with the Vegetable Maths Masters app consumed significantly more vegetables after playing with the app and reported significant increases in their liking of vegetables, relative to the control group. The effect of the Vegetable Maths Masters app on the change in consumption of vegetables was mediated by the change in liking of vegetables. These findings suggest that evidence-based mobile apps can provide an effective tool for increasing children's liking and consumption of vegetables in the short-term. Further work is now required to establish whether these effects are maintained over time.
