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Comparing decision making in average and overweight children and adolescents
S Verbeken1, C Braet1, G Bosmans1
1Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
International Journal of Obesity (2005)
|December 17, 2013
Summary
Overweight children exhibit decision-making deficits linked to future insensitivity, suggesting a potential pathway to childhood obesity. This impacts self-regulation and reward processing in young individuals.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Obesity Research
Background:
- Self-regulation skills are crucial for managing behavior, particularly in relation to eating habits.
- Overeating and obesity in children are complex issues potentially linked to underlying cognitive processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate self-regulation differences between overweight and normal-weight children.
- To explore the role of hypersensitivity to reward and future insensitivity in children's overeating behaviors.
Main Methods:
- A cohort of 130 children (66 normal-weight, 64 overweight) aged 11-16 years participated.
- Participants completed a developmental analogue of the Iowa Gambling Task to assess decision-making.
Main Results:
- Overweight children demonstrated decision-making failures.
- These failures were specifically attributed to future insensitivity, indicating a reduced consideration of long-term consequences.
Conclusions:
- Findings support the reward deficiency hypothesis in the context of childhood obesity.
- Results suggest that future insensitivity may be a contributing factor to obesity via an anhedonic route in children.
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