Mother-Child Conversations about the Impact of Nutrition and Activities on a Short and Long-Term Basis

Abstract

The following two studies examined mother-child conversations about the outcomes of engaging in healthy and unhealthy eating and physically active and sedentary activities. Study 1 (n= 29 mother-child dyads, M age = 4.6 years) examined the impact of healthy and unhealthy eating on a short and on a long term basis. Study 2 (n = 34 mother-child dyads, M age = 4 years 8 months) examined the impact of physically active and sedentary activities on a short and on a long term basis. Overall for Study 1, preschoolers elicited significantly more physiological and physical responses. For Study 2, preschoolers gave significantly more physiological and physical utterances than their mothers did. The results of these two studies demonstrate that preschoolers draw predominantly on the biological domain when reasoning about the impact of engaging in healthy/unhealthy nutrition and physically active and sedentary activities on a short and on a long-term basis.