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Cooking together: the Ikea effect on family vegetable intake
This 2019 study theorizes that child inclusion in meal planning and preparation by their parents may help increase their vegetable consumption. This concept is based on the ‘IKEA effect’, which assumes that individuals like self-created objects more than objects created by someone else. Radtke et al. also investigate whether this relationship between child participation and vegetable intake is mediated by the kids’ liking for vegetables. The results showed that allowing children to take part in food planning and preparation directly affected their liking for and intake levels of vegetables. In addition, this liking for vegetables influenced vegetable consumption and mediated the interaction between child involvement and vegetable intake (but only in children and not in parents). This research highlights how crucial it is that parents allow their children to be involved with healthy food preparation, since this leads to their increased liking for vegetables, and thus its higher consumption. There was evidential support for the IKEA effect in children but not in parents. Interventions can start focusing on encouraging child participation in cooking activities to enhance their intake levels of vegetables. [NPID: vegetables, meal planning, meal prep, meal preparation, cooking, child cooking, eating vegetables, veg, eating veg, child involvement, healthy foods, healthy eating]
Year: 2019
