The eButton takes frontal images at 4s intervals throughout the day. A three-dimensional manually administered wire mesh procedure has been developed to quantify portion sizes from the two-dimensional images. The present paper reports a test of the inter-rater reliability and validity of use of the wire mesh procedure.

Seventeen foods of diverse shapes and sizes served on plates, bowls and cups were selected to rigorously test the portion assessment procedure. A dietitian not involved in inter-rater reliability assessment used standard cups to independently measure the quantities of foods to generate the ‘true’ value for a total of seventy-five ‘served’ and seventy-five smaller ‘left’ images with diverse portion sizes.

The images appeared on the computer to which the digital wire meshes were applied.

Two dietitians and three engineers independently estimated portion size of the larger (‘served’) and smaller (‘left’) images for the same foods.

The engineers had higher reliability and validity than the dietitians. The dietitians had lower reliabilities and validities for the smaller more irregular images, but the engineers did not, suggesting training could overcome this limitation. The lower reliabilities and validities for foods served in bowls, compared with plates, suggest difficulties with the curved nature of the bowls.

The wire mesh procedure is an important step forward in quantifying portion size, which has been subject to substantial self-report error. Improved training procedures are needed to overcome the identified problems.

Habit has been defined as the automatic performance of a usual behaviour. The present paper reports the relationships of variables from a Model of Goal Directed Behavior to four scales in regard to parents’ habits when feeding their children: habit of (i) actively involving child in selection of vegetables; (ii) maintaining a positive vegetable environment; (iii) positive communications about vegetables; and (iv) controlling vegetable practices. We tested the hypothesis that the primary predictor of each habit variable would be the measure of the corresponding parenting practice.

Internet survey data from a mostly female sample. Primary analyses employed regression modelling with backward deletion, controlling for demographics and parenting practices behaviour.

Houston, Texas, USA.

Parents of 307 pre-school (3–5-year-old) children.

Three of the four models accounted for about 50 % of the variance in the parenting practices habit scales. Each habit scale was primarily predicted by the corresponding parenting practices scale (suggesting validity). The habit of active child involvement in vegetable selection was also most strongly predicted by two barriers and rudimentary self-efficacy; the habit of maintaining a positive vegetable environment by one barrier; the habit of maintaining positive communications about vegetables by an emotional scale; and the habit of controlling vegetable practices by a perceived behavioural control scale.

The predictiveness of the psychosocial variables beyond parenting practices behaviour was modest. Discontinuing the habit of ineffective controlling parenting practices may require increasing the parent’s perceived control of parenting practices, perhaps through simulated parent–child interactions.

To model effective vegetable parenting practices using the Model of Goal Directed Vegetable Parenting Practices construct scales.

An Internet survey was conducted with parents of pre-school children to assess their agreement with effective vegetable parenting practices and Model of Goal Directed Vegetable Parenting Practices items. Block regression modelling was conducted using the composite score of effective vegetable parenting practices scales as the outcome variable and the Model of Goal Directed Vegetable Parenting Practices constructs as predictors in separate and sequential blocks: demographics, intention, desire (intrinsic motivation), perceived barriers, autonomy, relatedness, self-efficacy, habit, anticipated emotions, perceived behavioural control, attitudes and lastly norms. Backward deletion was employed at the end for any variable not significant at P<0·05.

Houston, TX, USA.

Three hundred and seven parents (mostly mothers) of pre-school children.

Significant predictors in the final model in order of relationship strength included habit of active child involvement in vegetable selection, habit of positive vegetable communications, respondent not liking vegetables, habit of keeping a positive vegetable environment and perceived behavioural control of having a positive influence on child’s vegetable consumption. The final model’s adjusted R2 was 0·486.

This was the first study to test scales from a behavioural model to predict effective vegetable parenting practices. Further research needs to assess these Model of Goal Directed Vegetable Parenting Practices scales for their (i) predictiveness of child consumption of vegetables in longitudinal samples and (ii) utility in guiding design of vegetable parenting practices interventions.

Increasing a parent’s ability to influence a child’s vegetable intake may require reducing the parent’s use of ineffective vegetable parenting practices. The present study was designed to understand the psychosocial influences on ineffective vegetable parenting practices.

A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted to model use of ineffective vegetable parenting practices using validated scales from a Model of Goal Directed Vegetable Parenting Practices.

The dependent variable was a composite ineffective vegetable parenting practices index. The independent variables included validated subscales of intention, habit, perceived barriers, desire, competence, autonomy, relatedness, attitudes, norms, perceived behavioural control and anticipated emotions. Models were analysed using block regression with backward deletion.

Parents of 307 pre-school children (3–5 years old).

Variables significantly positively related to ineffective vegetable parenting practices in order of relationship strength included habit of controlling vegetable practices (standardized β=0·349, P<0·0001) and desire (standardized β=0·117, P=0·025). Variables significantly negatively related to ineffective vegetable parenting practices in order of relationship strength included perceived behavioural control of negative parenting practices (standardized β=–0·215, P<0000), the habit of active child involvement in vegetable selection (standardized β=–0·142, P=0·008), anticipated negative parent emotional response to child vegetable refusal (standardized β=–0·133, P=0·009), autonomy (standardized β=–0·118, P=0.014), attitude about negative effects of vegetables (standardized β=–0·118, P=0·015) and descriptive norms (standardized β=–0·103, P=0·032). The model accounted for 40·5 % of the variance in use of ineffective vegetable parenting practices.

The present study is the first report of psychometrically tested scales to predict use of ineffective vegetable parenting practices. Innovative intervention procedures will need to be designed and tested to reduce ineffective vegetable parenting practices.

To test the effect of image size and presence of size cues on the accuracy of portion size estimation by children.

Children were randomly assigned to seeing images with or without food size cues (utensils and checked tablecloth) and were presented with sixteen food models (foods commonly eaten by children) in varying portion sizes, one at a time. They estimated each food model’s portion size by selecting a digital food image. The same food images were presented in two ways: (i) as small, graduated portion size images all on one screen or (ii) by scrolling across large, graduated portion size images, one per sequential screen.

Laboratory-based with computer and food models.

Volunteer multi-ethnic sample of 120 children, equally distributed by gender and ages (8 to 13 years) in 2008–2009.

Average percentage of correctly classified foods was 60·3 %. There were no differences in accuracy by any design factor or demographic characteristic. Multiple small pictures on the screen at once took half the time to estimate portion size compared with scrolling through large pictures. Larger pictures had more overestimation of size.

Multiple images of successively larger portion sizes of a food on one computer screen facilitated quicker portion size responses with no decrease in accuracy. This is the method of choice for portion size estimation on a computer.

To examine the relationship of 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) sensitivity to BMI while statistically controlling for demographic characteristics in two age groups of children: 9–10 years and 17–18 years (n 1551).

Cross-sectional design with a multi-ethnic (White, African-American, Hispanic, Other) sample of 813 children aged 9–10 years and 738 children aged 17–18 years. Children were recruited from local elementary and high schools with at least 30 % minority ethnic enrolment. Children’s height, weight and waist circumference were measured along with their PROP taster status. PROP was measured using two paper discs, one impregnated with NaCl (1·0 mol/l) and the other with PROP solution (0·50 mmol/l).

A significant PROP sensitivity by socio-economic status (SES) interaction term (P = 0·010) was detected wherein supertasters had the largest BMI percentile and Z-score, but only among the group with highest SES.

The results suggest that other factors overwhelmed the influence of PROP sensitivity on adiposity in lower-SES groups. The percentage of variance accounted for by the interaction term was about 1 %. Thus, PROP supertasters had the largest BMI percentile and Z-score, but only among the highest-SES group.

Parents may influence children’s fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption in many ways, but research has focused primarily on counterproductive parenting practices, such as restriction and pressure to eat. The present study aimed to assess the association of diverse parenting practices to promote F&V and its consumption among pre-school children.

An exploratory analysis was performed on cross-sectional data from 755 Head Start pre-school children and their parents collected in 2004–5. Data included parent practices to facilitate child F&V consumption (grouped into five categories); parent-reported dietary intake of their child over 3 d; and a number of potential correlates. K-means cluster analysis assigned parents to groups with similar use of the food parenting practice categories. Stepwise linear regression analyses investigated the association of parent clusters with children’s consumption of F&V, after controlling for potential confounding factors.

A three-cluster solution provided the best fit (R2 = 0·62), with substantial differences in the use of parenting practices. The clusters were labelled Indiscriminate Food Parenting, Non-directive Food Parenting and Low-involved Food Parenting. Non-directive parents extensively used enhanced availability and teachable moments’ practices, but less firm discipline practices than the other clusters, and were significantly associated with child F&V intake (standardized β = 0·09, P < 0·1; final model R2 = 0·17) after controlling for confounders, including parental feeding styles.

Parents use a variety of parenting practices, beyond pressuring to eat and restrictive practices, to promote F&V intake in their young child. Evaluating the use of combinations of practices may provide a better understanding of parental influences on children’s F&V intake.

This exploratory study assessed how 8–13-year-old children categorised and labelled fruit and vegetables (FaV), and how these were influenced by child characteristics, to specify second-level categories in a hierarchical food search system for a computerised 24 h dietary recall (hdr).

Two sets of food cards, sixty-seven for fruit (F) and sixty-four for vegetables (V), with pictures and names of FaV from ten professionally defined food categories were sorted, separately, by each child into piles of similar foods. Demographic data, BMI and 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) taster status were obtained.

Participants attended the Children’s Nutrition Research Center in the summer of 2006.

In all, 152 8–13-year-old children, predominantly English-speaking, of whom sixteen were predominantly Spanish-speaking.

Children created an average of 8·5 (5·3) piles with 7·9 (11·4) cards per pile for the F, and an average of 10·1 (4·8) piles with 6·2 (7·9) cards per pile for the V. No substantial differences in Robinson clustering were detected across subcategories for each of the demographic characteristics, BMI or PROP sensitivity. Children provided clusters names that were mostly ‘Taxonomic – Professional’ labels, such as salads, berries, peppers, for both F (51·8 %) and V (52·1 %).

These categories should be tested to assess their ability to facilitate search of FaV items in a computerised 24 hdr for children in this age group.