Innovative approaches to support children’s healthy eating behavior during mealtime
Maintaining a nutritionally balanced diet can be challenging in households with young children. Picky eating, limited food intake, and children being distracted during dinner are a few of the many challenges that parents face during mealtime. As a result, family mealtime can be stressful and experienced as a struggle by both the child and the parent. It often leads to conflicts and tension at the dinner table, thereby negatively impacting the mental health of child and parent. In the long run, this could result in feelings of isolation and low self-esteem at the side of the child. Moreover, an unbalanced diet puts the child at risk of nutrient deficits and obesity. Research has shown that children who show these eating behaviors are likely to stick to these behaviors during adulthood. However, the younger the child, the better its changes to battle these behaviors, and with that increase its changes for good health.
In this project we will research in what way we must design interactive technology (tangible objects used in the dining setting) for it to stimulate healthy eating behaviors at the side of children, while at the same time support a positive social family setting during mealtime.
Fundamental research into social modeling aims to understand the conscious and unconsciousness influence that each family member (parents and siblings) exerts on each other’s eating behavior. Observational studies will be conducted within authentic family environments to gain insight into the relation between the child's conduct and the actions taking place in the environment. This knowledge will provide grounding for the technology development phase. At what times during the meal should the unwanted eating behavior be targeted and in what way should the interactions between the child and the technology be shaped to align with both the context of use and the child's perspective? Co-design techniques will be used to engage the target audience as effectively as possible in this process. Furthermore, both short-term and long-term evaluation studies will be conducted with families to investigate the effects of the interactive technology.
Contact person:
Dr. Juliet Haarman
j.a.m.haarman@utwente.nl
+31 (0)53 489 6084