Studying and Documenting Industry Self-Regulation Strengths and Weaknesses in Addressing Food Marketing Practices that Contribute to Childhood Obesity

This project will examine the strengths and weaknesses of self-regulation in addressing food marketing practices that contribute to childhood obesity. Investigators will document the impact and effectiveness of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (“CARU”) (the principal mechanism for self-regulation in this area) and the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (“Initiative”) (a recent development involving More

Analyzing the Nature and Extent of Food Advertising During Children’s Programming on Spanish Language Television

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the nutritional quality of the foods advertised on children’s programs on Spanish-language broadcast and cable channels, and to compare it to English-language channels. The study will examine a wide range of descriptive measures that include product type, persuasive theme/appeal, use of mascots, celebrities, licensed characters, contests, More

Evaluating Methods for Increasing Public Support for Policies Regulating Food Marketing to Children

Through this research, investigators will develop and test experimental methods for increasing public support for policies regulating food marketing to children. The significance of this project lies in its potential for identifying persuasive appeals (referred to as message frames) to enhance public support for childhood obesity prevention policies. Examples of such message framing have been More

Creating Healthy Food and Eating Environments: Policy and Environmental Approaches

Individual behavior to make healthy choices can occur only in a supportive environment with accessible and affordable healthy food choices. This article presents an overview of food environments and strategies for creating healthy eating environments. An ecological framework is presented for conceptualizing the many food environments and conditions that influence food choices, followed by a More

The Role of Child-Care Settings in Obesity Prevention

A majority of American children participate in non-parental child-care arrangements in child-care centers and homes. The child-care setting can play a major role in shaping children’s dietary intake, physical activity, and energy balance. In this article, the authors discuss trends in child-care use, child-care food and physical activity policies and environments, and obesity prevention interventions More