Examining the Association Between Parental Factors and Childhood Obesity.

PURPOSE: To examine associations between parent's diet and BMI (body mass index) and child's sedentary behavior and physical activity (PA) with child's BMI. DESIGN: A descriptive design. METHODS: Study participants were a parent-child dyad in a subsample of families enrolled in Chicago Heights Early Childhood Center. FINDINGS: Approximately 80% of parents had a BMI classifying as overweight or obese. Associations between children's sedentary behavior, PA, and BMI were insignificant. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the importance of including parents when developing strategies for promoting healthy behavior of children. CLINICAL EVIDENCE: Community health nurses are well-positioned to promote healthy behaviors.

Heterogeneity in place effects on health: The case of time preferences and adolescent obesity.

We leverage a natural experiment in combination with data on adolescents' time preferences to assess whether there is heterogeneity in place effects on adolescent obesity. We exploit the plausibly exogenous assignment of military servicemembers, and consequently their children, to different installations to identify place effects. Adolescents' time preferences are measured by a validated survey scale. Using the obesity rate in the assigned installation county as a summary measure of its obesity-related environments, we show that exposure to counties with higher obesity rates increases the likelihood of obesity among less patient adolescents but not among their more patient counterparts.

Minority and low-SES families' experiences during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis: A qualitative study.

Objectives: To explore minority and low-SES families' general experiences with the stay-at-home mandate initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews (n = 31) were conducted in May 2020 - six to nine weeks after the stay-at-home mandate was initiated in Chicago Heights, Illinois. Participants were randomly selected from the parent Chicago Heights Early Childhood Center (CHECC) study (N = 2,185). Thematic content analysis of transcribed semi-structured interviews were employed. Results: During the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, ethnic minority and low-SES families were generally comfortable in their homes, but both children and their parents experienced poor wellbeing, such as elevated stress. Families reportedly avoided social resources, despite low-SES. Upon reflection, parents expressed that the pandemic had changed them and, in some ways, the changes were positive. Conclusion: Readily available crisis-oriented resources, for both children and parents, are needed to help families maintain or rebuild their sense of control over their lives during the early phases of a collective crisis (e.g., pandemic). Although early observations help to contextual families' initial experiences, examining long-term trends can inform meaningful policies and practices that both support how low-SES families buffer against COVID-19-related negative impacts and mitigate ethnic and SES inequities and disparities.

Increased Financial Altruism is Associated with Alzheimer's Disease Neurocognitive Profile in Older Adults.

BACKGROUND: Older age is associated with an increase in altruistic behaviors such as charitable giving. However, few studies have investigated the cognitive correlates of financial altruism in older adults. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the cognitive correlates of financial altruism measured using an altruistic choice paradigm in a community-based sample of older adults. METHODS: In the present study, a sample of older adults (N = 67; M age = 69.21, SD = 11.23; M education years = 15.97, SD = 2.51; 58.2% female; 71.6% Non-Hispanic White) completed a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment and an altruistic choice paradigm in which they made decisions about allocating money between themselves and an anonymous person. RESULTS: In multiple linear regression analyses that controlled for age, education, and sex, financial altruism was negatively associated with performance on cognitive measures typically sensitive to early Alzheimer's disease (including word list learning and recall, delayed story recall, and animal fluency). CONCLUSION: Findings of this study point to a negative relationship between financial altruism and cognitive functioning in older adults on measures known to be sensitive to Alzheimer's disease. Findings also point to a potential link between financial exploitation risk and Alzheimer's disease in older age.

Consumer Preference for Food Bundles under Cognitive Load: A Grocery Shopping Experiment.

Product bundling is a common retail marketing strategy. The bundling of food items has the potential to increase profits in the grocery sector, particularly for fresh produce, which often has lower profit margins. Although prior work suggests consumers prefer bundles because they require less cognitive effort to select, no study has yet experimentally manipulated cognitive load when food bundles are included in the choice set. To test whether bundle preference differs when cognitive resources are constrained, a grocery shopping experiment was conducted with 250 consumers in the midwestern U.S., in a laboratory that featured a grocery store display. Consumers who grocery shopped under cognitive load had a higher odds of selecting a food bundle even when the bundle did not offer a price discount. Results suggest food bundles may be preferred because they require less cognitive effort to process, which could benefit consumers by simplifying the grocery shopping experience. Additional factors found to influence food bundle selection included whether the bundled items were perceived as being complementary and hunger levels. Food bundles could help lessen cognitive effort associated with grocery shopping and may especially appeal to those who do not enjoy food shopping.

Do Financial Incentives Aimed at Decreasing Interhousehold Inequality Increase Intrahousehold Inequality?

Research has shown that giving disadvantaged families financial incentives to invest in their children could decrease socioeconomic inequality by enhancing human capital formation. Yet, within the household how are such gains achieved? We use a field experiment to investigate how parents allocate time when they receive financial incentives. We find that incentives increase investment in the target child. But, parents achieve these gains by substituting away from time spent with the child's sibling(s). An unintended consequence is that intrahousehold inequality increases and aggregate gains from the program are overstated when focusing only on target children.

Adolescent Time and Risk Preferences: Measurement, Determinants and Field Consequences.

We use experimental and survey measures to evaluate the time and risk preferences of nearly 500 adolescents aged 16-19 years old. We find that survey questions about time and risk preferences are weakly correlated with corresponding experiments in which participants trade-off monetary rewards. We find potentially substantial inter-generational transfer of time and risk preferences: parent time and risk preferences are strongly predictive of adolescent preferences for both survey and experimental measures. There are also interesting heterogeneities: girls are less risk seeking and more patient than boys when risk and time preferences are measured via surveys. Interestingly, the survey measures have more predictive power for field outcomes than the experimental measures. Higher patience as measured by the survey is significantly associated with lower body mass index (BMI), less time spent on sedentary activities, more time spent on physical activity and lower consumption of fast food and sweets.

The development of social comparisons and sharing behavior across 12 countries.

Humans are social beings, and acts of prosocial behavior may be influenced by social comparisons. To study the development of prosociality and the impact of social comparisons on sharing, we conducted experiments with nearly 2500 children aged 3-12 years across 12 countries across five continents. Children participated in a dictator game where they had the opportunity to share up to 10 of their stickers with another anonymous child. Then, children were randomized to one of two treatments. In the "shared a little" treatment children were told that another child from their school had shared 1 sticker, whereas in the "shared a lot" treatment children were told that another child from their school had shared 6 stickers in the same game. There was a strong increase in baseline sharing with age in all countries and in both treatments. The "shared a lot" treatment had a positive treatment effect in increasing sharing overall, which varied across countries. However, cross-cultural comparisons did not yield expected significant differences between collectivist and individualist countries. Our results provide interesting evidence for the development of sharing behavior by age across the world and show that social information about the sharing of peers is important for children's decision making.

Risk Preferences of Children and Adolescents in Relation to Gender, Cognitive Skills, Soft Skills, and Executive Functions.

We conduct experiments eliciting risk preferences with over 1,400 children and adolescents aged 3-15 years old. We complement our data with an assessment of cognitive and executive function skills. First, we find that adolescent girls display significantly greater risk aversion than adolescent boys. This pattern is not observed among young children, suggesting that the gender gap in risk preferences emerges in early adolescence. Second, we find that at all ages in our study, cognitive skills (specifically math ability) are positively associated with risk taking. Executive functions among children, and soft skills among adolescents, are negatively associated with risk taking. Third, we find that greater risk-tolerance is associated with higher likelihood of disciplinary referrals, which provides evidence that our task is equipped to measure a relevant behavioral outcome. For academics, our research provides a deeper understanding of the developmental origins of risk preferences and highlights the important role of cognitive and executive function skills to better understand the association between risk preferences and cognitive abilities over the studied age range.

The Effect of Early Childhood Education on Social Preferences.

We present results from the first study to examine the causal impact of early childhood education on the social preferences of children. We compare children who, at 3-4 years old, were randomized into either a full-time preschool, a parenting program, or a control group. We returned to the children when they reached 6-8 years of age and conducted a series of incentivized experiments to elicit their social preferences. We find that early childhood education has a strong causal impact on social preferences. Our findings highlight the importance of taking a broad perspective when designing and evaluating early childhood educational programs.

Physical and mental health correlates of perceived financial exploitation in older adults: Preliminary findings from the Finance, Cognition, and Health in Elders Study (FINCHES).

Objectives: Financial exploitation (FE) in old age is poorly understood, particularly among those without significant cognitive impairment. The Finance, Cognition, and Health in Elders Study (FINCHES) aims to identify factors associated with FE among cognitively-healthy older adults. Preliminary findings regarding physical and mental health correlates in the pilot phase of FINCHES are reported.Method: Sixteen older adults who self-reported FE were demographically-matched on age, education, sex, and race/ethnicity to eighteen older adults who did not report past FE.Results: Those who believed they were exploited endorsed significantly greater symptoms of depression (p = 0.014) and marginally greater symptoms of anxiety (p = 0.062). Participants trended towards lower perceived successful aging (p = 0.094). Perceived FE participants also endorsed greater medical conditions (p = 0.047), but follow-up individual item analyses suggest that this was driven by problems with sleep (p = 0.030).Conclusions: These preliminary findings from the pilot phase of FINCHES highlight negative mental health factors associated with perceived FE among cognitively-intact older adults.

Toward an understanding of the development of time preferences: Evidence from field experiments.

Time preferences have been correlated with a range of life outcomes, yet little is known about their early development. We conduct a field experiment to elicit time preferences of over 1,200 children ages 3-12, who make several intertemporal decisions. To shed light on how such primitives form, we explore various channels that might affect time preferences, from background characteristics to the causal impact of an early schooling program that we developed and operated. Our results suggest that time preferences evolve substantially during this period, with younger children displaying more impatience than older children. We also find a strong association with race: black children, relative to white or Hispanic children, are more impatient. Finally, assignment to different schooling opportunities is not significantly associated with child time preferences.

"No Regrets": Qualitative Evidence on Early Claiming of Social Security Retirement.

We conducted focus groups (n = 68) to explore how older Americans feel about their past Social Security claiming decisions. Like most older Americans, our focus group participants claimed Social Security early: about 45% claimed Social Security at age 62, and about 65% claimed before Full Retirement Age (ages 65-66). We might expect that older adults may regret early claiming, since this can result in lower financial security in later life. Respondents reported satisfaction with their decisions to claim relatively early. Most noted that they "made the right decision given their circumstances at the time." Reasons for the decision included liquidity constraints and longevity concerns. People reported that were circumstances different they would have chosen to claim later. We also found evidence that having more information and being better prepared at the time of claiming increased satisfaction levels.

Food bundling as a health nudge: Investigating consumer fruit and vegetable selection using behavioral economics.

Displaying bundles of healthy foods at the grocery store is a health nudge that simplifies shopping and may have the potential for increasing fruit and vegetable (F&V) purchasing. To evaluate the impact of food bundling, we conduct an artefactual field experiment with community participants in a laboratory set up as a grocery store. Dual-self theory suggests that food choices may differ depending on whether shoppers are under cognitive load - in our experiment, we exogenously vary whether bundles are displayed (with and without a price discount) and whether shoppers are under cognitive load. Our findings align with prior studies that suggest unhealthy options are more likely to be selected when cognitive resources are constrained. When bundles are displayed, we observe increased F&V purchasing. We also observe a significant interaction between cognitive load and price discounting. We find discounted bundles are more effective in the absence of cognitive load, but non-discounted bundles are more effective when shoppers are under cognitive load. Although more research is warranted, our findings suggest that when shopping under cognitive load, it is possible that discounts impose additional cognitive strain on the shopping experience. For retailers and policymakers, our results point to the potential power of bundling as a strategy for increasing healthy food purchasing.

The test-retest reliability of the latent construct of executive function depends on whether tasks are represented as formative or reflective indicators.

This study investigates the test-retest reliability of a battery of executive function (EF) tasks with a specific interest in testing whether the method that is used to create a battery-wide score would result in differences in the apparent test-retest reliability of children's performance. A total of 188 4-year-olds completed a battery of computerized EF tasks twice across a period of approximately two weeks. Two different approaches were used to create a score that indexed children's overall performance on the battery-i.e., (1) the mean score of all completed tasks and (2) a factor score estimate which used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Pearson and intra-class correlations were used to investigate the test-retest reliability of individual EF tasks, as well as an overall battery score. Consistent with previous studies, the test-retest reliability of individual tasks was modest (rs ≈ .60). The test-retest reliability of the overall battery scores differed depending on the scoring approach (rmean = .72; rfactor_score = .99). It is concluded that the children's performance on individual EF tasks exhibit modest levels of test-retest reliability. This underscores the importance of administering multiple tasks and aggregating performance across these tasks in order to improve precision of measurement. However, the specific strategy that is used has a large impact on the apparent test-retest reliability of the overall score. These results replicate our earlier findings and provide additional cautionary evidence against the routine use of factor analytic approaches for representing individual performance across a battery of EF tasks.

The curious relation between theory of mind and sharing in preschool age children.

Young children have long been known to act selfishly and gradually appear to become more generous across middle childhood. While this apparent change has been well documented, the underlying mechanisms supporting this remain unclear. The current study examined the role of early theory of mind and executive functioning in facilitating sharing in a large sample (N = 98) of preschoolers. Results reveal a curious relation between early false-belief understanding and sharing behavior. Contrary to many commonsense notions and predominant theories, competence in this ability is actually related to less sharing. Thus, the relation between developing theory of mind and sharing may not be as straightforward as it seems in preschool age children. It is precisely the children who can engage in theory of mind that decide to share less with others.

The behavioralist as nutritionist: leveraging behavioral economics to improve child food choice and consumption.

We leverage behavioral economics to explore new approaches to tackling child food choice and consumption. Using a field experiment with >1500 children, we report several key insights. We find that incentives have large influences: in the control, 17% of children prefer the healthy snack, whereas introduction of small incentives increases take-up of the healthy snack to ∼75%. There is some evidence that the effects continue post-treatment, consistent with a model of habit formation. We find little evidence that the framing of incentives (loss vs. gain) matters. Educational messaging alone has little effect, but we observe a combined effect of messaging and incentives: together they provide an important influence on food choice.