Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Annual Meeting Accomplishments:

• We reviewed progress on papers from Objective 1 and next steps toward publication.
• We made refinements to the parent and youth questionnaires for Objective 2, reducing the number of items and selected existing measures to be included.
• We had experts in online survey methodology and item response theory call into the meeting to provide consultation to the group on best practices.
• Mary Kay Wardlaw provided an administrative update via telephone and answered questions relative to timelines moving forward.
• We discussed potential papers and authorship for the Objective 2 data.
• Members nominated Karina Lora (Chair), and Alex Kojo Anderson (Chair-Elect), and Lillie Monroe-Lord (Secretary) to serve in leadership positions for the 2019-20 term. Glade Topham will serve as Past Chair. The next annual meeting is scheduled for the University of Hawaii March 11-14, 2020. Jinan Banna will serve as meeting host and Karina Lora will chair the 2020 meeting.

The TERMINATION REPORT is Attached

Accomplishments for 2017-2018

Background.  Parents are primary influencers of adolescent food choices and consumption behaviors (Savage et al., 2007). However, there is limited evidence about how adolescents eat when they are making food choices without the direct influence of their parents. US children and adults are consuming food more frequently throughout the day and more at each occasion (Popkin and Duffey, 2010); a rise that parallels the rise in obesity and increases in portion sizes (Piernas and Popkin, 2011). That consumption is occurring as primary eating or meal occasions but increasingly as secondary eating which may or may not be mealtime eating. Additionally, while evidence shows that most families (58%) consume about 5 or more meals/week together, (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), 2011), others report the percentage consuming shared family meals is lower among lower SES groups (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2013). The 1994-96 CFSII data reveal a mean of 4.5 daily eating occasions/day (Ritchie, 2012). Adolescents (10-13 years old) who are at the age of becoming more independent are likely making food choice decisions on their own at some of those daily eating occasions. However, frequency of eating and snacking are both increasing and what and how much food adolescents choose and consume when they are outside of their parental influence is not known. The work exploring parental practices and their impact on children’s intakes, weight and eating behaviors is not well established. In particular, a focus on what occurs in those occasions when the child is making independent choices and not in the presence of the parent needs more clarity. What strategies do parents use to model healthy food intake? How can the behavior of modeling or creating rules and expectations be measured and how do those behaviors impact children’s food intake? How often do early adolescents make independent food choices and are there parental expectations for choices that they make? How compliant are they with their parental rules? How do role modeling, food choice rules or expectations and food availability translate into food choices when a child is on their own or with peers or siblings at an eating occasion? How can parents be more motivated to overcome the barriers they perceive to engaging in positive food parenting practices? Having a greater understanding of this phenomenon fosters the ability to communicate and promote effective practices and strategies to parents for managing healthy eating among their youth.

Project Objectives. Explore and identify key parental practices (role modeling, making healthy foods available, and setting rules/expectations and other practices) that may impact eating behaviors and food choices during independent eating occasions and weight among low-income, multi-ethnic early adolescents. 2. Examine the association between key parental practices and positive eating behaviors during independent eating occasions among low-income, multi-ethnic early adolescents 3. Examine the association between key parental practices and early adolescents’ weight. 4. Develop communications for parents and nutrition professionals

Main Accomplishments for 2018-2019

The main accomplishment of the 2018-2019 project year of the W3003 group was the development and pilot testing of parent and adolescent questionnaires for collection of quantitative data as part of Objective 2 of the project, which includes further data collection from 400 parent-teen dyads from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. The focus of the questionnaires is how caregivers and youth approach independent eating occasions. Most of the questionnaire items were developed by the team based on the qualitative interviews with parents and teens conducted as part of Objective 1 of the study in prior years. Following development of the questionnaires, items were compared with existing measures targeting eating occasions when caregivers are around and some language from these measures were used to adjust wording in the project questionnaires. In addition, items that were similar to others were removed to reduce the length of the questionnaires to reduce respondent burden. Next, team members conducted cognitive interviews with ethnically diverse caregiver-teen dyads while they completed the draft questionnaires to discern where items were unclear and/or youth or parents understood them differently than intended. A subgroup revised the questionnaires based on these interviews. An additional review by the full team was used to continue to reduce the number of items and to identify what existing measures would be included with the project developed questionnaires.

The questionnaires were pilot tested with 206 parent/adolescent dyads recruited from a Qualtrics Panelist Database. Exploratory factor analysis was completed to identify 5-6 parallel factors for parents and youth with acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The factors included parenting practices that could influence food choices during adolescents’ independent eating occasions based on teaching, modeling, making foods/beverages available, monitoring and setting expectations for intake. The items within each factor will comprise scales that will be studied in relation to adolescent-reported intake during independent eating occasions and in relation to their overall dietary intake in further survey data collection from 400 parent-adolescent dyads as part of W3003 Objective 2.

Progress throughout the year was facilitated through monthly web conferences with the full group and additional sub group meetings as necessary.

Publications

Reicks M., Davey, C., Anderson, A. K., Banna J., Cluskey M., M., Gunther, C., Jones, B., Richards, R., Topham, G. L., Wong, S. S. (2019). Frequency of Eating Alone among Adolescents is Associated with Dietary Intake, Perceived Parent Support and Weight Status: Cross-sectional FLASHE Study Results. Public Health Nutrition, (1), 1-12.

Gunther, C., Reicks, M., Banna, J., Suzuki, A., Topham, G. L., Richards, R., Jones, B., Lora, K., Anderson, A. K., Pernicka, C., Hopkins, L. C., Cluskey, M., Hongu, K., Monroe-Lord, L., Wong, S. (Under review). Food parenting practices that influence adolescents’ food choices during independent eating occasions. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.  

Papers and posters presented last year:

Richards R, Jones B, Anderson A, Banna JC, Cluskey M, Gunther C, Hongu N, Lora K, Misner S, Monroe-Lord L, Reicks M, Topham G, Wong SS. Parental practices and its impact on 10-13 year-old children. Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo, 2018, Washington, D.C., presentation by Rickelle Richards.

Suzuki A, Anderson A, Choi SY, Cluskey M, Gunther C, Hongu N, Jones B, Lora K, Misner S, Monroe-Lord L, Penicka C, Reicks M, Richards R, Topham G, Wong SS, Banna JC. Characterizing eating behavior during independent eating occasions among early adolescents in Hawaii. Nutrition 2018, Boston, Massachusetts, poster presentation by Asuka Suzuki (PhD student).  

Banna JC, Richards R, Jones B, Anderson A, Cluskey M, Gunther C, Hongu N, Lora K, Misner S, Monroe-Lord L, Reicks M, Topham G, Wong SS, Lim E. Describing independent eating occasions among low-income adolescents ages 10-13 in the United States: a multi-state study. Nutrition 2018, Boston, Massachusetts, poster presentation by Jinan Banna. 

Anderson AK, Richards R, Jones B, Banna J, Gunther C, Hongu N, Lora K, Misner S, Monroe-Lord L, Reicks M, Topham G, Wong SS. Challenges in collecting pictorial data and identifying foods in dietary assessment of early adolescents. Dietary Intake 2018: Workshop on Innovative Technologies for Dietary Intake Measurements. September 17, Imperial College, United Kingdom, presentation by Alex Anderson

Reicks M, Davey C, Anderson AK, Banna J, Cluskey M, Gunther C, Jones B, Richards R, Topham G, Wong SS. Frequency of eating alone among adolescents, perceptions of parenting practices, and dietary intake: results from the FLASHE Study. Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior Annual Meeting July 2018, Minneapolis, poster presentation by Marla Reicks.

Papers and Posters to be Presented During the Upcoming Year 

Banna J, Richards R, Jones B, Anderson A, Cluskey M, Gunther C, Hongu NK, Lora K, Misner S, Monroe-Lord L, Reicks M, Topham G, Wong SS,  Lim E. (in preparation). Describing independent eating occasions among low-income adolescents ages 10-13 in the United States A multi-state study.