Early Adolescents’ Food Selection After Evaluating the Healthiness of Remote Peers’ Food Choices

Author First name, Last name, Institution

Ramón Cobo‐Reyes, American University of Sharjah
Juan A. Lacomba, University of Granada
Francisco Lagos, Zayed University
Christina Zenker, University of St. Gallen
Ernesto Reuben, New York University Abu Dhabi

ORCID Identifiers

0000-0001-9425-4607

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Child Development

Publication Date

7-15-2021

Abstract

This study investigates whether asking early adolescents to evaluate the food choices of remote peers improves their own food selection. Participants were students from fifth (N = 219, Mage = 9.30 years) and sixth grades (N = 248, Mage = 10.28 years) of varying nationalities living in the United Arab Emirates (race and ethnicity were not collected). Students saw peers' healthy or unhealthy food choices before picking their own food. In some conditions, students also critically evaluated the healthiness of the peers' choices. Evaluation of peer choices led to healthier decisions (d = .53) to the point that it offsets the negative impact of observing unhealthy peer choices. This effect is larger for sixth graders compared to fifth graders.

DOI Link

10.1111/cdev.13631

ISSN

1467-8624

Publisher

Wiley

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

Scopus ID

85110378532

Recommended Citation

Cobo‐Reyes, Ramón; Lacomba, Juan A.; Lagos, Francisco; Zenker, Christina; and Reuben, Ernesto, "Early Adolescents’ Food Selection After Evaluating the Healthiness of Remote Peers’ Food Choices" (2021). All Works. 4345.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/4345

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no