Explore projects in diet and eating habits!
Projects in diet and eating examine how children’s nutritional habits influence their physical, cognitive, and emotional development. These studies explore eating behaviors, dietary patterns, and food environments from early childhood through adolescence, with attention to how nutrition shapes brain development, academic performance, self-regulation, and overall well-being. Research often considers the roles of family practices, socioeconomic status, cultural influences, and school or community-based interventions in shaping children’s eating habits. Many projects also focus on addressing issues such as food insecurity, disordered eating, or childhood obesity—aiming to promote lifelong healthy behaviors and reduce health disparities among children and youth.
“Happy little boy eats strawberries” is licensed under CC BY 1.0 via Wikimedia Commons
- Collaborative Research: Eating Behavior and Social Cognition DevelopmentProject Abstract/Summary Establishing healthy eating habits and healthy social relationships are critical to children’s well-being. This project tests the hypothesis that children’s own decisions about what to eat are guided by what people from their sociocultural ingroups endorse (rather than just by how foods taste and look). It also tests the hypothesis that eating together can foster positive social relationships, including between members of different sociocultural groups. Together, the studies in this proposal will suggest interventions to improve children’s diets… Read more: Collaborative Research: Eating Behavior and Social Cognition Development