Food Selectivity In Children: A Demographic Study

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Researchers Bandini, Curtin, Phillips, Anderson, Maslin, and Must (2017) were interested in determining if food selectivity in children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) continued as they grew older. Also, the researchers were interested in determining if there is an association between weight and food selectivity, and if these two variables changed over the course of time. The independent variables were weight and food selectivity which was operationalized as food refusal and food repertoire. Food refusal was defined as the amount of food that a child refuse to eat. While food repertoire was defined as the different type of foods that the child consumed. The researchers conducted a longitude study that measured food selectivity during …show more content…
Questionnaires include the Differential Abilities Scale-2 and the vineland adaptive behavior scale-II which measure adaptive behavior and cognitive skills. To measure food intake, the researchers used the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) which required that the parents kept track of 131 foods that the children ate. Also, the parents kept a three day journal of all food intake which includes two weekdays and one weekend. In addition, the researchers used the Meals in our Household Questionnaire which measured behaviors during meal times. To confirm that the children were diagnosed with ASD, the parents answered the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised questionnaire. Lastly, the researchers measured the weight of the children with the use of a stadiometer and the Seca scale. This data was collected from the previous study conducted by the researchers and it included typically developed …show more content…
The first limitation is that the sample consisted of only 18 children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder, thus the generalizability might be low because it does not have the appropriate effect size to demonstrate the relationship between time and food selectivity, and food selectivity and weight, also this sample might not be truly representative of all children on the Autism SPectrum Disorder. One solution is to this limitation is to have a larger sample. Another limitation regarding generalizability is that the researchers did not provide any information regarding the demographics of the sample. The reason why it is important to know the demographics is because it can possibly provide information on any differences of food selectivity. For instance, the participants who belong to a higher socioeconomic status (SES) might lower food selectivity than participants who belong to a lower SES because participants in a higher SES bracket might have more resources to devoted to the participants which includes helping the participants become less selective in food choices over time. Additionally, participants who belong the in a lower SES might not be able to buy certain food which are mentioned in the food frequency questionnaire, such as, fresh vegetables, sorbet, and sherbet. This could affect the results for food refusal because it might not be that the participants refused to consume