Ongoing Data Collection Research Studies
1. Food Acceptance Study
This project is interested in modifying adults’ eating behaviors who identified as picky eaters. We are interested in whether repeated exposure of a food increased food acceptance. This study is funded by University of Toledo Research Awards and Fellowships Program. We are inviting University of Toledo students between 18 and 30 years to participate in this study at the University of Toledo main campus (University Hall 1900). Upon eligibility and participation, participants can earn up to $35 Amazon gift card. If interested, please click here.
2. Mother-Daughter Appearance Conversation (MDACS)
This project is interested in examining the exposure of appearance conversation on eating behavior. This is a milestone project of a graduate student, Frances Lauten. Data collection is Currently, we invite mothers and their daughters between the ages of 8 and 12 years to participate. Upon eligibility and participation in our research lab, each dyad will receive a $50 Amazon gift card.
3. Adult Child Eating Behavior (ACE Study)
This project is interested in how adult children’s recollection of their parents’ food parenting relate to their parents’ reports of food parenting. In addition, we seek to examine whether adults’ children anthropometric data as measured by InBody machine relate to their disordered eating (e.g., restrained eating).
Completed Research Studies
1.UT-Virtual Family Mealtimes Study (UT-VFAM)
Funded by the Dean’s Office of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Toledo, this project examined the interaction of two parents with their 3- to 8-year old child during a naturalistic mealtimes. We are currently in the process of extracting the behavioral observational data through coding.
2. Mindful Feeding, Parental Stress, and Child Eating Behavior
An undergraduate student (Merina Varghese) honors project research which was funded by 1) the 2021 Undergraduate Summer Research and Creative Activities Program and 2) the Department of Psychology Chair’s Minority/Underrepresented Research Grant. This project examined the associations among parental stress, mindful feeding and child eating behaviors. In this project, parents of children between 3 and 12 years old completed an online survey through Amazon MTurk.
3. Dietarian Identity and Feeding
Funded by the Dean’s Office of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Toledo, this project examined the dietarian identity, eating behaviors, parenting, and feeding practices of fathers and mothers of children between 3- and 5-years old.
4. COVID-19 Stress and Feeding
Funded by the Dean’s Office of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Toledo, this project seeks to examine the covid-19 stress, parenting, and feeding practices of fathers and mothers of children between 3- and 5-years old. This data for this project has been collected, data analysis is underway.
5. Parenting and Feeding
Funded by the National Institute of Health and in collaboration with Drs. Alison Miller, Kristi Gamarel, and Richard Gonzalez at the University of Michigan, this project seeks to examine how the characteristics of both parents of children between 3- and 5-years old within a household relate to parents’ feeding practices. In this project, both parents of preschool-aged children will provide online consents and complete an online-survey.
6. Maternal-Infant Feeding Interaction
Funded by the National Institute of Health and in collaboration with Dr. Julie Lumeng at the University of Michigan, this project seeks to examine whether maternal and infant behaviors during a naturalistic feeding interaction prior to 4 months predict infants’ adiposity at age 12 months. In this project, research assistants coded maternal and infants videotaped interactions and test whether: 1) maternal and infant characteristics are associated with observed maternal and infant feeding behaviors and 2) observed maternal and infant feeding behaviors predict infants’ adiposity at age 12 months.
7. Feeding-Specific Coparenting
Funded by the National Institute of Health and in collaboration with Drs. Alison Miller and Julie Lumeng at the University of Michigan, this project seeks to describe how fathers and mothers of preschool-aged children navigate around mealtime-related tasks (e.g., meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking). In this project, we conduct interviews with fathers and mothers as a group and individually. Further, we also conduct an online-study to create a survey that measure coparenting around feeding among fathers and mothers of children.
8. Satiety Cues
Funded by the National Institute of Health and in collaboration with Drs. Alison Miller and Julie Lumeng at the University of Michigan, this project seeks to code theoretically-driven features of child eating behavior that could signal satiety in toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children and test whether observable behavioral indicators of satiety signaling associate with adiposity. Weight Attitudes & Body Image Projects
8. Weight Attitudes and Body Image
In collaboration with Dr. Chong Man Chow at the Eastern Michigan University, this project seeks to examine the development of adolescents’ and emerging adults’ body image in the context of parent-child, friendships, and romantic relationships. Specifically, this project seeks to investigate how body talk or excessive discussion of body related concerns, may contribute to heighten body image problems experienced by two members in close relationships.
UT Family and Child Development Lab 