Health authorities and public communities stated that fast-food marketing is the most recognized potent force for contribution to childhood obesity. Much research has focused on the influence of television commercials on children’s eating behaviours, thus this study explored the effect of fast-food branding on children’s taste preferences. Sixty preschool children between three and six years old (M = 4.6, SD = 1.2) were grouped into Non-obese, Obese and overweight, according to their BMI values based on WHO classification. The study was divided into two stages. The initial stage comprised of a survey distributed to parents collecting information on family’s fast-food consumption habits. The second stage was an experiment designed to determine the effects of food packaging. Participants tasted three pairs of identical foods (burgers, nuggets and carrots) presented in either popular fast-food brand or neutral unbranded packaging before indicating whether the two tasted the same, or if one tasted better. Results reviewed that 63.3% of the participants preferred food presented in popular brand packaging. Furthermore, no differences were found between the groups across three food products [?² (2, n= 60), p>.05]. Findings imply that advocates should use this information to brand more nutritious products that is more appealing to children.
This study was designed to investiagate the normal fears experienced by Singaporean children and to compare these fears with those reported by Australian and American children. A total of 1,234 Singaporean children aged 7 to 12 years filled in the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised questionnaire. The study's findings revealed that the top common fears reported by Singaporean children relate to fears that concern death and danger. Factor analysis yielded a 10 factor structure that relates primarily to the fears of danger and death, and fears related to negative social consequences. Compared to children in Australia and America, the findings from this study suggest higher fear sensitivity among Singaporean children towards ordinary day-to-day events. The implications of the study's findings for understanding fears in Singaporean children are discussed.
The Rehearsal Scale for Children – Chinese (RSC-C) measures the propensity to rehearse emotionally taxing experiences in children, however, the initial development of the scale has overlooked the validity of the scale for pre-adolescents of different ages whose cognitive development may differ considerably. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the internal validity of RSC-C for the different age groups (aged 6-7, 8-9 and 10-12) across an age range of 6 to12 years. Confirmatory factor analysis based on the original factor structure suggested that the internal validity of the RSC-C is poor and the scale was modified for the age groups concerned. Test-retest reliability for the modified scales was stronger for the younger age groups and moderate concurrent validity against the Chinese Trait Anxiety Scale for Children (CTAS-C) was established. No gender differences were found. The results highlight the importance of testing the validity of a psychometric instrument across different age ranges, given the potential for significant developmental differences. The current study also provided a new set of psychometrically sound RSC-C for the different age groups to promote greater understanding of the role of emotional rehearsal and psychological stress in physical and psychological well-being in young children.
**JavaScript is disabled. The site is not able to function
properly without the browser having JavaScript enabled.
How to Enable JavaScript in Your Browser
.**