Using behavioural insights to reduce sugar in primary school children's packed lunches in derby; A cluster randomised controlled trial.

Children's packed lunches contain more sugar than school-provided meals. Interventions to improve the provision of healthier packed lunches have modest effects on lunch contents. This cluster randomised controlled trial tested an intervention to encourage healthier provision of packed lunches by parents of primary school children in Derby. Schools were randomised to intervention (n = 8) or control (n = 9) using blocked random allocation. In the intervention group, parents of children who brought packed lunches to school in years 3-6 (age 7-11 years) received three bundles of materials (including packed lunch planner, shopping list, information on sugar content of popular lunchbox items and suggestions for healthier swap alternatives) in bookbags/lunchboxes over a 4-week period. Control parents received no materials. Photos of lunchbox contents were taken at baseline, immediately post-intervention and at three-month follow-up. A parental survey aimed to assess capability, opportunity and motivation for packing a healthier lunchbox. No intervention effects were observed for primary outcomes (presence and number of sugary snacks or chilled sugary desserts). The intervention had a significant impact on one secondary outcome (increased number of healthier "swap" items suggested in intervention materials) immediately post-intervention, but this effect had disappeared at three-month follow-up. No intervention effects were found on survey variables. Parent comments revealed that materials were either received positively (as they reinforced existing behaviours) or negatively (as they were not perceived to be helpful or appropriate). The results of this study suggest that providing educational materials and resources to parents of primary school children in Derby was not sufficient to increase provision of healthier packed lunches. Future research should investigate how behavioural science can support families to improve the nutritional content of primary school children's lunchboxes.

Exploring the relationship between gamma-band activity and maths anxiety.

Previous research has outlined high anxiety in connection with gamma modulation, identifying that gamma-band activity (40-100 Hz) correlates with processing of threat perception, attention and anxiety. Maths anxiety research has also noted the involvement of these aspects, yet this has not been investigated from a neurophysiological standpoint. Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to research gamma-band activity in relation to maths anxiety over two studies. The first measured gamma differences during the processing of complex addition and multiplication stimuli. Results identified differences between high and low maths anxious individuals; significantly greater gamma power was observed in those with high maths anxiety than those with low maths anxiety. As a control condition was not used, the second study replicated the design, but also applied a non-numerical control condition amongst the other stimuli sets. This showed significantly greater gamma activity in high maths anxious individuals across numerical conditions, but not in the non-numerical condition. High maths anxious individuals likely show attentional bias and threat perception to numerical-based stimuli, as indexed by gamma power. This study provides the first evidence of greater gamma-band activity in high maths anxious individuals and serves as a foundation for the exploration of gamma activity in high maths anxious individuals.

Attentional biases towards familiar and unfamiliar foods in children. The role of food neophobia.

Familiarity of food stimuli is one factor that has been proposed to explain food preferences and food neophobia in children, with some research suggesting that food neophobia (and familiarity) is at first a predominant of the visual domain. Considering visual attentional biases are a key factor implicated in a majority of fear-related phobias/anxieties, the purpose of this research was to investigate attentional biases to familiar and unfamiliar fruit and vegetables in 8 to 11 year old children with differing levels of food neophobia. To this end, 70 primary aged children completed a visual-probe task measuring attentional biases towards familiar and unfamiliar fruit/vegetables, as well as the food neophobia, general neophobia and willingness to try self-report measures. Results revealed that as an undifferentiated population all children appeared to demonstrate an attentional bias towards the unfamiliar fruit and vegetable stimuli. However, when considering food neophobia, this bias was significantly exaggerated for children self-reporting high food neophobia and negligible for children self-reporting low food neophobia. In addition, willingness to try the food stimuli was inversely correlated with attentional bias towards the unfamiliar fruits/vegetables. Our results demonstrate that visual aspects of food stimuli (e.g. familiarity) play an important role in childhood food neophobia. This study provides the first empirical test of recent theory/models of food neophobia (e.g. Brown & Harris, 2012). Findings are discussed in light of these models and related anxiety models, along with implications concerning the treatment of childhood food neophobia.

Interpretation Biases in Pain: Validation of Two New Stimulus Sets.

Adults with chronic pain interpret ambiguous information in a pain and illness related fashion. However, limitations have been highlighted with traditional experimental paradigms used to measure interpretation biases. Whilst ambiguous scenarios have been developed to measure interpretation biases in adolescents with pain, no scenario sets exist for use with adults. Therefore, the present study: (i) sought to validate a range of ambiguous scenarios suitable for measuring interpretation biases in adults, whilst also allowing for two response formats (forced-choice and free response); and (ii) investigate paradigm efficacy, by assessing the effects of recent pain experiences on task responding. A novel ambiguous scenarios task was administered to adults (N = 241). Participants were presented with 62 ambiguous scenarios comprising 42 that could be interpreted in a pain/pain-illness or non-pain/non-pain illness manner: and 20 control scenarios. Participants generated their own solutions to each scenario (Word Generation Task), then rated how likely they would be to use two researcher-generated solutions to complete each scenario (Likelihood Ratings Task). Participants also rated their subjective experiences of pain in the last 3 months. Tests of reliability, including inter-rater agreement and internal consistency, produced two ambiguous scenario stimulus sets containing 18 and 20 scenarios, respectively. Further analyses revealed adults who reported more recent pain experiences were more likely to endorse the pain/pain-illness solutions in the Likelihood Ratings Task. This study provides two new stimulus sets for use with adults (including control items) in pain research and/or interventions. Results also provide evidence for a negative endorsement bias in adults.

Developmental differences in sensory decision making involved in deciding to try a novel fruit.

OBJECTIVES: This research compared sensory processing and personality traits involved in deciding to try a novel fruit (guava) in adults and children. DESIGN: The research employed an age, sex, and food neophobia matched between-participant design to examine sensory decision making in choosing to eat a novel fruit. METHODS: Forty-four adults (Study 1) and 68 children (Study 2) took part. In each study, participants were separated into two groups to investigate whether prior assessment of a familiar and liked fruit (apple) that shares similar visual characteristics to the target novel fruit (guava) increased the likelihood that an individual would decide to try it. All participants completed appetitive and familiarity ratings by sensory stages: vision, smell, and touch, prior to trying (tasting) the fruit. Participants (or their parents) also completed the general and food neophobia scales and adults also completed the sensation-seeking scale. RESULTS: Twenty-eight adults (64%) tried the guava and 16 did not (36%). In the second study, 22 children decided not to try the novel fruit (32%). Significant predictors of whether the adult tried the target fruit were Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Experience Seeking, General Neophobia, and 'appealing to touch'. In children, Food Neophobia, concurrent presentation of a familiar fruit alongside the target and visual assessment of the target predicted decision to try the novel fruit. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that touch is pertinent to adults' decision to try a novel fruit, whereas visual cues appear to be more important for children.

Food neophobia and 'picky/fussy' eating in children: a review.

Two factors have been shown to contribute to rejection or acceptance of fruits and vegetables: food neophobia and 'picky/fussy' eating. Food neophobia is generally regarded as the reluctance to eat, or the avoidance of, new foods. In contrast, 'picky/fussy' eaters are usually defined as children who consume an inadequate variety of foods through rejection of a substantial amount of foods that are familiar (as well as unfamiliar) to them. Through understanding the variables which influence the development or expression of these factors (including age, personality, gender, social influences and willingness to try foods) we can further understand the similarities and differences between the two. Due to the inter-relationship between 'picky/fussy' eating and food neophobia, some factors, such as pressure to eat, personality factors, parental practices or feeding styles and social influences, will have similar effects on both magnitude and duration of expression of these behaviours. On the other hand, these constructs may be differentially affected by factors such as age, tactile defensiveness, environment and culture. The effects of these variables are discussed within this review. Behavioural interventions, focusing on early life exposure, could be developed to attenuate food neophobia and 'picky/fussy' eating in children, so promoting the ready acceptance and independent choice of fruits and vegetables.