Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Findlay, Findlay, OH 45840, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Apr 11;15(4):720. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15040720.
Childhood obesity is a serious issue in the U.S. While obesity is the result of a multitude of factors, a great deal of research has focused on children's dietary intake. While children's eating patterns vary throughout the week, not much else is known about weekday-weekend differences. Therefore, the current study examined differences in the frequency and portion size of school-age children's consumption of common foods and beverages, as well as mothers' perceptions of those items and their child feeding goals, on weekdays and weekends. A total of 192 mothers of children aged 7 to 11 were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Results showed a consistent pattern of more frequent consumption and larger portions of unhealthy foods and beverages on weekends. This aligned with mothers' perceptions of those foods and beverages as weekend items, as well as their feeding goals of health and price being less important on weekends. It is quite possible that weekends are viewed as having less structure and facilitate schedules that allow children to consume more meals away from home. These findings shed light on additional risk factors in children's eating patterns and highlight the serious implications that day of the week can have on childhood obesity.
儿童肥胖是美国的一个严重问题。虽然肥胖是多种因素造成的，但大量研究集中在儿童的饮食摄入上。虽然儿童的饮食习惯在一周内有所不同，但关于工作日和周末差异的了解并不多。因此，目前的研究调查了学龄儿童在工作日和周末食用常见食物和饮料的频率和份量差异，以及母亲对这些食物的看法以及她们喂养孩子的目标。共有 192 名 7 至 11 岁儿童的母亲通过亚马逊的 Mechanical Turk 招募。结果显示，周末不健康食品和饮料的消费频率更高，份量更大。这与母亲对这些食物和饮料的看法一致，即它们是周末食品，以及她们在周末更重视健康和价格的喂养目标。很有可能周末被视为没有那么多的结构，并且更有利于孩子们安排更多的离家就餐时间。这些发现揭示了儿童饮食习惯的其他风险因素，并强调了一周中的某一天对儿童肥胖的严重影响。
