Age Group: Elementary-age children (grades K to 5)

Assessing the Impact of Food Restrictions Under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on Food Choices by Children and Families

By

Some public health advocates and policymakers are proposing restrictions on the types of foods eligible for purchase with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, such as sugary drinks and food products with minimal nutritional value. To date, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has rejected all such proposals due to lack of research on whether More

Children’s School-Related Food and Physical Activity Behaviors are Associated with Body Mass Index

By

This paper examines the associations between the food and physical activity environment in schools and body mass index (BMI) for lower-income boys and girls when they were in the 8th grade during 2007. Analyzing secondary data from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K), researchers found that a number of More

Evaluating School Wellness Policies Following Implementation of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010: Updating the Wellness School Assessment Tool (WellSAT)

By

The primary aim of this project is to revise and update the content and format of the WellSAT (Wellness School Assessment Tool, www.wellsat.org), an online quantitative measure for evaluating the quality of school wellness policies. Originally launched in 2009, the website has had thousands of visitors across all 50 states, and is used by policy-makers, More

Assessing the Relative Impact of Home-Food and Local-Supermarket Environments on Children’s Diets in Low-Resource African American Neighborhoods

By

This study will take advantage of a unique natural experiment to evaluate the ways in which the home food environment modifies the effects of a new full-service supermarket on children’s diet in a low-resource, urban, African American neighborhood. The study has two specific aims: 1) to determine the effect of the new supermarket on children’s More

Healthy Characters? An Investigation of Marketing Practices in Children’s Food Advertising

By

This article assesses the nutritional quality of foods that are advertised with familiar children’s characters. It also examines how frequently familiar characters are paired with health messages in these advertisement. A total of 577 food advertisements that were aired on the most popular broadcast and cable channels during 2011 were included in the study. Researchers More

Investigating Nutrition Standards in Seven California Counties to Inform Policy at Local, State, and Federal Levels

By

Establishing county-level food and beverage standards is a promising strategy for improving nutrition environments. This study will investigate the impact of nutrition standards policies on county facilities that serve foods and beverages to children from lower-income communities of color in California. The specific aims are to: 1) describe the process of developing, implementing, and monitoring More

Improving Healthy Eating Among Children Through Changes in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Policies: An Economic Microsimulation

By

Over 10 million children participate in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Recent proposed policy changes have suggested banning or taxing the use of SNAP benefits for sugar-sweetened beverage purchases and/or subsidizing fruit and vegetable purchases with SNAP benefits. Several uncertainties about these proposed policies remain unanswered: 1) How will substitution of some products More

Using a Bid Database to Study the Nutritional Quality of Competitive Foods in Schools and Establish a Baseline for Evaluating New USDA Guidelines

By

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently proposed new standards for snack (competitive) foods in schools, similar to the Competitive Foods Guidelines developed by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. This project will objectively track changes in snack food purchasing among K-12 public schools as a result ofthese standards. The aims of this work are to More

How Television Fast Food Marketing Aimed at Children Compares with Adult Advertisements

By

This article compares quick-service restaurant (QSR) television advertisements for children’s meals with adult advertisements from the same company to assess whether companies were complying with their self-regulatory pledges. Researchers coded nationally televised advertisements for visual and audio assessments of branding, toy premiums, movie tie-ins, and depictions of food. They found that almost all of the More