Associations between TV viewing at family meals and the emotional atmosphere of the meal, meal healthfulness, child dietary intake, and child weight status.pdfVIP

Appetite 108 (2017) 361e366 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Appetite journal homepage: /locate/appet Associations between TV viewing at family meals and the emotional atmosphere of the meal, meal healthfulness, child dietary intake, and child weight status Amanda C. Trofholz a, *, Allan D. Tate b, Michael H. Miner a, Jerica M. Berge a a Division of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA b Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA article info Article history: Received 2 August 2016 Received in revised form 12 October 2016 Accepted 14 October 2016 Available online 15 October 2016 Keywords: Family meals Direct observation TV viewing Emotional atmosphere Dietary quality abstract Background: Research on family meals has demonstrated that family meals are protective for many aspects of child and adolescent health. It is unclear whether distractions at family meals, such as watching TV, are associated with child weight and weight-related behaviors, the emotional atmosphere at the meal, or family meal healthfulness. Methods: Direct observational and objective data were collected on primarily low-income and minority families (n ? 120) with 6e12 year old children. Data were collected during home visits and included 24hr dietary recalls, anthropometry, and video-recorded family meals. Video-recorded family meals were coded to assess the presence of TV, whether the family was paying attention to the TV, family group enjoyment and the dietary healthfulness of the foods served at family meals. Results: The presence of TV was negatively associated with the dietary healthfulness and emotional atmosphere of the meal and the childs overall dietary quality. It was positively associated with serving fast food for family meals. Those families who were paying attention to the TV had signi?cantly worse meal dietary healthfulness and were more likely to have fast food at family meals compared