The influence of social-norm versus health messages on preschool and elementary-school children's food choices

The present study examined the influence of nutrition messages on preschool and elementary-school children's food choices. While social-norm and health messages have been shown to impact elementary-school children's food choices (Sharps Robinson, 2016), no previous study has examined how types of nutrition messages impact preschoolers. One hundred twenty participants, 60 preschool (ages 34-71 months, M = 51.83) and 60 elementary-school (ages 89-125 months, M =107.41) were assigned to social-norm, health, or control message groups. A board game was designed to deliver nutrition messages to each group. After playing, children were offered a choice of healthy or unhealthy snack; the food choice and grams consumed were recorded. It was hypothesized that the social-norm messages would have a greater impact than health messages, and elementary-school children would be more impacted than preschoolers. While most participants chose an unhealthy snack, analyses determined that more children in the nutrition message groups than control group chose healthy snacks, c2 (2, N = 120) = 10.71, p = .005, and consumed more grams, F(2, 117) = 4.22, p = .017. Elementary-school children chose healthy snacks more often than preschoolers; significant differences were found in number of grams consumed, t(118) = -2.70, p .001. Both types of nutrition messages were impactful for elementary-school children; no effects on preschool children were found. Developmental differences were attributed to preschool children's lack of executive control.