Are Offline Meals Healthy Meals? A Field Experiment to Promote Healthier Eating in Families

Summary

First research findings suggest that the influence of digital media on children's and adolescents' health depends primarily on proper use and regulation. In line with Social Cognitive Theory, parents' own mobile device use is very important to regulate children's media use because parents are their children's role models. However, parents do not always behave as optimal role models: They use smartphones on playgrounds, in restaurants, as well as during family mealtimes. This usage of mobile devices leads to interruptions during face-to-face conversations or routines which is defined as "technoference". Studies among children and parents suggest that parental mobile device use is associated with fewer parent-child interactions. In addition, first studies investigated mobile device use at the dining table and showed that mothers had less interactions with their children during meal times when they used a mobile device compared to mothers who did not and their children were also less likely to try new and unfamiliar food. Along the same lines, lower parental mobile device use during mealtime is also associated with healthier body weight in children. AIM: Examination of the effect of a time out from smartphone use during a family meal on the parent-child interaction at the meal table and eating quality in comparison to family meals where participants use the smartphone as usual. DESIGN: The study is a within-family field experiment with daily assessments over 14 days (7 days for the experimental condition, 7 days for the control condition). Families will go through both, intervention and control condition with a break of 21 days in between. The assessment of the main and secondary outcomes is conducted at the baseline, over a 14 day daily diary phase and at the follow-up (directly after the daily diary phase). The sample will consist of 120 families with at least one child between the age of 6 to 14 years old. Only the participating adult in the study fills in the questionnaires. OUTCOMES: (Un)healthy eating and parent-child interaction constitute the main outcome, whereas technoference, mealtime duration, atmosphere at the meal table, and smartphone use frequency are secondary outcomes.

Conditions

• Health Behavior
• Smartphone Addiction
• Healthy Nutrition

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Time out from smartphone use during meal time

One parent will be instructed to install a study app. Further, he/she press a button within the App to start a time out from the smartphone at the beginning of a meal (i.e. calls and message are blocked and the parent needs to press an extra button in order to leave the app). The app instructs all other family members to turn off their phones and to put them away. Then, the parent is instructed to take a picture with their smartphone from the "smartphone-free family meal table" . The time-out is over as soon as the parent presses the "stop" button.

BEHAVIORAL

Control condition

The same as the experimental condition but without a timeout from smartphone use.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Max Planck Institute for Human Development

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Mannheim

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Wuppertal

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jutta Mata, Prof. Dr. · University of Mannheim

• Mattea Dallacker, Dr. · Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Adaptive Rationality

• Theda Radtke, Prof. Dr. · Uniersity of Wuppertal

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-11-01

Primary Completion

2022-01-31

Completion

2024-12-31

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations