Leann L Birch

Pennsylvania State University | Penn State · College of Health and Human Development

PurposeTo examine the relationship of family, friend, and media factors on weight-control group membership at 15 years separately and in a combined model. Methods Subjects included 166 15 year girls. Latent class analysis identified four patterns of weight-control behaviors: non-dieters, lifestyle, dieters, and extreme dieters. Family (family funct...

Background: Maternal breast milk (MBM) is enriched in microRNAs, factors that regulate protein translation throughout the human body. MBM from mothers of term and preterm infants differ in nutrient, hormone, and bioactive-factor composition, but the microRNA differences between these groups have not been compared. We hypothesized that gestational...

Objective: This paper reviews the state of the science on psychological and neural contributions to appetite self-regulation in the context of obesity. Methods: Three content areas (neural systems and cognitive functions; parenting and early childhood development; and goal setting and goal striving) served to illustrate different perspectives on...

Objectives: Evaluate effects of a theoretically-based, semi-intensive (Face-to-Face; F2F) exercise intervention and minimum-contact (Home) exercise intervention to the standard care (Control) on exercise, its motivational determinants, blood glucose levels, and insulin use of pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Design: Rando...

Objective: To assess whether patterns of dietary exposures at 9 months are associated with child diet and weight at 6 years. Methods: Data for this study were from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II and Year 6 Follow-Up Studies. All data were self-reported monthly. Results of a previous latent class analysis revealed 5 dietary patterns varyin...

Background Parents shape children’s eating environments and act as powerful socialization agents, impacting young children’s behavioral controls of food intake. Most feeding measures assess parents’ use of control to manage children’s intake of energy dense foods. The Structure and Control in Parent Feeding (SCPF) questionnaire was developed to ass...

Background Emerging approaches to building more efficient and effective behavioral interventions are becoming more widely available. The current paper provides an empirical example of the use of the engineering-inspired multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) to build a remotely delivered responsive parenting intervention to prevent obesity among c...

Objective: The objectives of the current study were to examine whether eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) at age 7 predicted reports of self-reported binge eating at age 15 and to identify factors among girls with high-EAH that moderated risk of later binge eating. Method: Subjects included 158 girls assessed at age 7 and age 15. Logistic reg...

Background: Picky eating has been associated with lower weight status and limited food intake and variety in childhood. Little is known about how the persistence of picky eating in childhood is associated with changes in weight and food intake from childhood into adolescence. Objective: We determined whether picky eating identified in childhood...

Objective: This article examines relations between patterns of dietary exposures at 9 months and infant and maternal weight status at 1 year postpartum. Methods: Participants were part of the Infant Feeding Practices Study II and included 1807 mothers participating through the first year postpartum. All data were self-reported monthly by mothers...

Early self-regulation abilities have been highlighted as a robust predictor of adaptive development, but the extant literature has typically focused on outcomes in different developmental domains separately. The aim of the current study was to expand upon this research by testing pathways from girls’ inhibitory control at age 7 years, an aspect of...

Intake of energy-dense snack foods is high among US children. Although the use of restrictive feeding practices has been shown to be counterproductive, there is very limited evidence for effective alternatives to restriction that help children moderate their intake of these foods and that facilitate the development of self-regulation in childhood....

Objective The objectives were to identify and predict patterns of weight-control behavior in 15 years old (yo) girls and to examine weight-control group differences in energy intake.Method Participants included 166 girls assessed every 2 years (ys) from age 5 to 15. Latent class analysis was used to identify patterns of weight-control behaviors. An...

Objective Determine the association of children's susceptibility to large food portion sizes with appetite regulation and obesity.Methods Normal-weight and obese non-Hispanic black children (n = 100) aged 5-6 years were observed in four dinner conditions of varying portion size; portions of all foods (except milk) offered were: 100% (677 kcal), 150...

Nearly all Americans (97%) report eating candy at least once per year; yet, on a given day, only approximately one-fourth of the US population aged ≥2 y consumes candy. Among all Americans, candy contributes a relatively small proportion of calories, added sugars, and saturated fat to the total diet, and recent research suggests that current levels...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether infant temperament and previous feeding history were associated with infants' acceptance and rejection of a novel food at 12 months of age. Mother-infant dyads (n = 89) were video-recorded during a novel food (hummus, cottage cheese) feeding task. Infants' reactions (acceptance and rejecti...

Background Because early life growth has long-lasting metabolic and behavioral consequences, intervention during this period of developmental plasticity may alter long-term obesity risk. While modifiable factors during infancy have been identified, until recently, preventive interventions had not been tested. The Intervention Nurses Starting Infant...

Mothers use a range of feeding practices to limit children's intake of palatable snacks (eg, keeping out of reach, not bringing snacks into the home), but less is known about the effects of these practices on children's eating and weight outcomes. The objective was to identify distinct feeding practice profiles and evaluate the interactive effects...

Although serving a greater variety of food increases intake, this effect has not been well studied as a strategy to encourage consumption of vegetables and fruit in preschool children. This study examined whether providing a variety of familiar vegetables or fruit to preschool children as a snack would lead to increased selection and intake. In a c...

A consideration of potential moderators can highlight intervention effects that are attenuated when investigating aggregate results. Differential susceptibility is one type of interaction, where susceptible individuals have poorer outcomes in negative environments and better outcomes in positive environments, compared to less susceptible individual...

This quasiexperimental study used a within-subjects experimental design to determine whether adding herbs and/or spices to a reduced-fat dip increased children's willingness to taste, liking of, and consumption of vegetables. Participants were preschool children aged 3 to 5 years who attended a child-care center in Central Pennsylvania in late 2008...

Objectives: Dishware size is thought to influence eating behaviors, but effects on children's self-served portion sizes and intakes have not been studied. We aimed to evaluate whether larger dishware increased children's self-served portion sizes and intake during meals. Methods: A within-subjects experimental design was used to test the effects...

Many beliefs about obesity persist in the absence of supporting scientific evidence (presumptions); some persist despite contradicting evidence (myths). The promulgation of unsupported beliefs may yield poorly informed policy decisions, inaccurate clinical and public health recommendations, and an unproductive allocation of research resources and m...

Objective: Large portions promote intake among children, but little is known about the external influences of the eating environment on children's self-selected portion sizes. This research experimentally tested effects of the amount of entree available and serving spoon size on children's self-served entree portions and intakes at dinner meals. A...

Objective: Temperament, or individual differences in behavioral styles, could explain why many individuals are susceptible to childhood obesity in the current environment while others are not. The objective of this article is to review the growing body of literature linking weight outcomes with 2 aspects of temperament, negativity and self-regulat...

Obesity prevalence among infants and young children has increased rapidly during the past 4 decades, a disturbing trend given early obesity's association with later life obesity and its comorbidities. Fortunately, infancy is a period of great behavioral and metabolic plasticity offering numerous targets for preventive interventions. Modifiable fact...

An impaired ability to compensate for calories and increased eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) has been associated with increased energy intake and weight gain in unrelated children. The aims of this study were to compare caloric compensation [the percentage compensation index (%COMPX)] and EAH in weight-discordant siblings aged 5-12 y. In a cr...

The effect of self-serving on young children's energy intake is not well understood. The objective was to examine individual differences in the effects of plated and self-served entrée portions on children's energy intake. Two within-subjects experiments were used to examine ad libitum intake at meals in 63 children aged 3-5 y when 400 g of a pasta...

Childhood obesity is currently one of the most prevailing and challenging public health issues among industrialized countries and of international priority. The global prevalence of obesity poses such a serious concern that the World Health Organization (WHO) has described it as a "global epidemic." Recent literature suggests that the genesis of th...

Serving larger portions of energy-dense foods has been shown to promote children's energy intake at meals. Whether larger portions increase children's intake of both fruits and vegetables (F&V) is less clear. A 2×2 within-subjects design systematically varied portion sizes of fruit (75 vs 150 g) and vegetable (75 vs 150 g) side dishes served at din...

Previous portion size research in children has focused on the impact of large entrée portions on children's intake, but less attention has been given to how intake at a meal is affected across a broader range of entrée portions. The objective was to assess the effect of serving a range of entrée portions on children's ad libitum intake and energy d...

Most young children do not meet current dietary recommendations, consuming too many energy-dense foods and too few nutrient-dense foods like vegetables. We compared two approaches to increasing children's liking of vegetables by having them repeatedly taste small portions of vegetables that were initially not liked, presented either alone (repeated...

What has become familiar tends to be preferred while the unfamiliar is avoided. Additionally, liking is impacted by associative learning processes where new stimuli become liked via repeated pairings with familiar, already-liked stimuli. In addition to the ability to learn to like new foods and flavors, infants bring genetic taste predispositions t...

Strategies are needed to increase children's intake of a variety of vegetables, including vegetables that are not well liked. We investigated whether incorporating puréed vegetables into entrées to reduce the energy density (ED; in kcal/g) affected vegetable and energy intake over 1 d in preschool children. In this crossover study, 3- to 5-y-old ch...

The aim of the present study was to explore the parent feeding practice of using food to soothe infant/toddler distress and its relationship to child weight status. Seventy eight families with infants and toddlers (43 males) ranging in age from 3 to 34 months (M=14 mos, SD=9 mos) completed a survey which included questions on their use of food to s...

This study tested whether varying the portion of low-energy-dense vegetable soup served at the start of a meal affects meal energy and vegetable intakes in children. Subjects were 3- to 5-year-olds (31 boys and 41 girls) in daycare facilities. Using a crossover design, children were served lunch once a week for four weeks. On three occasions, diffe...

Current statistics on children's eating patterns and obesity rates are consistent with the idea that genetic taste predispositions, traditional feeding practices, and the obesogenic environment combine to increase the likelihood of unhealthy outcomes in many individuals. In this paper, we focus on one particular level of analysis through which this...

Registered dietitians routinely screen children for overweight and obesity using an age-specific body mass index (BMI) percentile. However, BMI percentile may not be an accurate tool for detecting elevated relative fat mass. The purpose of this study was to assess the validity of BMI percentile for identifying "overfatness" in a cohort of 197 white...

More than 20% of US children between ages 2 and 5 years are overweight suggesting efforts to prevent obesity must begin earlier. This study tested the independent and combined effects of two behavioral interventions delivered to parents, designed to promote healthy infant growth in the first year. Mother-newborn dyads intending to breastfeed were r...

Food preferences (FP) predict food intake in childhood; however, the predictive power of FP may decline among girls as weight concerns (WC) and dietary restraint (DR) increase during preadolescence. To examine longitudinal change in the preference-intake (P-I) relation and assess whether this relation weakens among non-Hispanic white girls (n = 197...

To examine how urban parents' perceptions of healthy infant size and growth relate to objective weight-for-length percentiles of their children, parents of 222 (69% minority) 6- to 27-month-old infants were surveyed. In all, 41% of parents said growth charts had never been explained to them, and 31% were not confident they understood the meaning of...

To systematically analyze growth data from infant health maintenance records to characterize infant weight gain increasing risk for childhood overweight, and to identify additional information from those records that could refine risky infant weight gain as a screening tool. Retrospective cohort study. A pediatric office in central Pennsylvania. Ch...

Some studies show that greater parental control over children's eating habits predicts later obesity, but it is unclear whether parents are reacting to infants who are already overweight. To examine the longitudinal association between maternal feeding restriction at age 1 and body mass index (BMI) at age 3 and the extent to which the association i...

Research on the development of snack food likes and dislikes from childhood to adolescence is limited. We investigated both the stability and the change in liking (i.e., "like", "neither like nor dislike", "dislike") and rank-order liking (i.e., liking one food more than others; e.g., "I like chocolate more than cookies") of snack foods from 5 to 1...

Abstract— Currently, children are developing in an obesity-promoting, or obesogenic, environment, which has emerged within the past 3 decades. This rapid change provides a rare opportunity to investigate the phenotypic outcomes that result from the expression of human genetic predispositions in a new environment. Unfortunately, the environmental ch...

Information is limited on persistence of early beverage patterns throughout childhood and adolescence and their influence on long-term dietary intake. To describe changes in beverage intake during childhood and assess beverage and nutrient intake from ages 5 to 15 years among girls who were consuming or not consuming sweetened carbonated beverages...

Most childhood obesity prevention efforts have focused on school-age children and adolescents and have had limited success. We argue that the first years of life, including the prenatal period, the postnatal suckling period and the transition to the modified adult diet, may provide opportunities for preventive interventions. These early periods are...

Serving larger portions of low-energy-dense vegetables at a meal could have beneficial effects on children's food and energy intakes. We investigated whether increasing the portion size of vegetables served at the start of a meal leads to increased vegetable consumption and decreased meal energy intake in children. In a crossover design, 3- to 5-y-...

Given the vast array of topics that are important to cover at infant health maintenance visits, extensive discussion about growth, growth charts, and healthy lifestyle may be challenging for providers. Nonetheless, obesity and its comorbidities threaten both individual patients and the health care system. To break the vicious cycle of obese childre...

We hypothesized that parents of infants prefer growth at higher percentiles and are averse to growth at lower percentiles. Of 279 participating parents, only 10% desired their child's weight to be in the lowest quartile. For children weighing in the lowest quartile, 57% of parents thought their child's weight was "too low." In contrast, 66% of pare...

We apply latent class analysis (LCA) to quantify multidimensional patterns of weight-loss strategies in a sample of 197 women, and explore the degree to which dietary restraint, disinhibition, and other individual characteristics predict membership in latent classes of weight-loss strategies. Latent class models were fit to a set of 14 healthy and...

The purpose of this study was to explore whether differences in patterns of weight control strategies predict 4-year weight change among women. Participants (N = 176), were assessed at baseline and biennially on three occasions. Weight control strategies were assessed by the Weight Loss Behavior Scale. Height and weight were measured to calculate B...

A priority for research is to identify individuals early in development who are particularly susceptible to weight gain in the current, obesogenic environment. This longitudinal study investigated whether early individual differences in inhibitory control, an aspect of temperament, predicted weight outcomes and whether parents' restrictive feeding...

Increased consumption of sweetened beverage has been linked to higher energy intake and adiposity in childhood. The objective was to assess whether beverage intake at age 5 y predicted energy intake, adiposity, and weight status across childhood and adolescence. Participants were part of a longitudinal study of non-Hispanic white girls and their pa...

This study describes qualitatively distinct trajectories of BMI change among girls participating in a longitudinal study of non-Hispanic, white girls (n = 182) and their parents, assessed at daughters' ages 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 years. Height, weight, body fat, fasting blood glucose and lipids, blood pressure, waist circumference, and pubertal st...

Although disinhibited eating is positively associated with higher weight in women, it is not known whether restrained eating and dieting moderate the influence of disinhibited eating on weight change. The objective was to investigate over 6 y the interactive effects of restrained and disinhibited eating and self-reported dieting to lose weight as p...

Rates of overweight in North American children and adolescents have increased dramatically since the 1970s. Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions and calls for prevention and treatment programs to reverse this trend have been made. However, the evidence base needed for effective action is still incomplete, especially for childhood obes...

Influences within the family environment have a profound effect on the development of eating patterns needed to sustain healthy development in infants and children. Early familial influences provide a basis for emerging individual differences among children concerning food selection and food-intake patterns. Parents play a pivotal role in providing...

The energy density (ED) of an entrée affects children's energy intake at a meal consumed ad libitum. However, the effects in children of changing the ED of meals over multiple days are unknown. We aimed to test the effect of reducing the ED of multiple meals on the ad libitum energy intake of preschool-age children over 2 d. In this crossover study...

This study examines developmental change and intraindividual stability in girls' fat stereotypes and associations between girls' internalization of stereotypes and their psychosocial well-being. Participants included 163 non-Hispanic white girls. Girls' fat stereotypes were assessed at ages 9 and 11 years and their height and weight and all measure...

Dietary energy density (ED) is positively associated with energy intake, but little is known about long-term effects on weight change. We assessed whether dietary ED predicts weight change over 6 y among a sample of non-Hispanic, white women. Participants were part of a 6-y longitudinal study (n = 186), assessed at baseline and biennially. ED (in k...

The energy density (ED; kcal/g) of an entrée influences children's energy intake (EI), but the effect of simultaneously changing both ED and portion size of an entrée on preschool children's EI is unknown. In this within-subject crossover study, 3- to 5-year-old children (30 boys, 31 girls) in a daycare facility were served a test lunch once/week f...

Table 3. This file contains a summary table for all studies that addressed Pathway 1 in our conceptual model (see Figure 1; the association between parenting and child weight) either alone or in combination with addressing Pathways 2 (the association between parenting and child eating) and 3 (the association between child eating and child weight).

Table 4. This file contains a summary table for all studies that addressed Pathway 2 in our conceptual model (see Figure 1; the association between parenting and child eating) either alone or in combination with addressing Pathway 3 (the association between child eating and child weight).

Worldwide, the prevalence of obesity among children has increased dramatically. Although the etiology of childhood obesity is multifactorial, to date, most preventive interventions have focused on school-aged children in school settings and have met with limited success. In this review, we focus on another set of influences that impact the developm...

Worldwide, the prevalence of obesity among children has increased dramatically. Although the etiology of childhood obesity is multifactorial, to date, most preventive interventions have focused on school-aged children in school settings and have met with limited success. In this review, we focus on another set of influences that impact the developm...

Strategies need to be developed to reduce preschool children's energy intake. To test the effect of reducing the energy density of an entrée on children's ad libitum energy intake. Subjects were 2- to 5-year-old children (37 boys and 40 girls) in a university day-care facility. In this within-subjects crossover study, children were served a test lu...

Inaccurate reporting of energy intake makes it difficult to study the associations between diet and weight status. This study examined reported energy intake at age 9 years as a predictor of girls' body mass index (BMI) at age 11 years, before and after adjusting for parents' BMI and girls' pubertal status. This prospective, observational cohort st...

Portion size influences children's energy intakes at meals, but effects on daily intake are unknown. Effects of large portions on daily energy intake were tested in 5-y-old Hispanic and African American children from low-income families. Maternal food intake data were collected to evaluate familial susceptibility to portion size. A within-subjects...

For decades, researchers have proclaimed the positive psychosocial benefits of participation in physical activity. However, recent meta-analyses of the literature have found infrequent and inconclusive empirical support for the link between physical activity and psychosocial well-being. In this study, we use data from a longitudinal study to explor...

To examine the relationship between pubertal timing and physical activity. A longitudinal sample of 143 adolescent girls was assessed at ages 11 and 13 years. Girls' pubertal development was assessed at age 11 with blood estradiol levels, Tanner breast staging criteria, and parental report of pubertal development. Girls were classified as early mat...

Large portions of energy-dense foods are one feature of obesity-promoting dietary environments. Entrée portion size has been shown to influence energy intake at meals by young children. The role of energy density (ED) in children's response to portion size, however, is unknown. We aimed to test the effects of portion size and ED on children's food...

Research suggests that parents use specific child-feeding strategies to influence their child's weight based on perceptions and concerns about their child's overweight risk, but limited data are available on ethnically diverse low-income populations. This cross-sectional study examined associations between mothers' perception and concern about chil...

This study establishes the reliability and validity of the Fat Preference Questionnaire, a self-administered instrument to assess preference for dietary fat. Respondents select the food which tastes better and is eaten more frequently from 19 sets of food. Each set is comprised of related foods differing in fat content. The questionnaire was admini...

To assess whether parental overweight status and disinhibited overeating are predictive of daughters' accelerated weight gain and disinhibited overeating. Participants were part of a longitudinal study of girls (N = 197) and their parents. Measured height and weight were used to calculate BMI [weight (kilograms)/height (meters)(2)]. Parents' disinh...

Previous research has shown that early maturing girls at age 11 have lower subsequent physical activity at age 13 in comparison to later maturing girls. Possible reasons for this association have not been assessed. This study examines girls' psychological response to puberty and their enjoyment of physical activity as intermediary factors linking p...

PURPOSE: To examine correlates and consequences of parents' encouragement of girls' physical activity (PA) for weight loss (ENCLOSS). METHODS: Data were collected for 181 girls, mothers and fathers when girls were 9, 11, and 13 years old. Mothers and fathers completed a self-report questionnaire of ENCLOSS (e.g., I have talked to my daughter about...

PURPOSE: To examine predictors and consequences of weight-related and health and well-being related motivations for physical activity (PA) among adolescent girls. METHODS: Data were collected from a longitudinal sample of 142 girls at ages 9, 11, and 13 years. Weight-related and health and well-being related motivations for PA were assessed at age...

The first years of life mark a time of rapid development and dietary change, as children transition from an exclusive milk diet to a modified adult diet. During these early years, children's learning about food and eating plays a central role in shaping subsequent food choices, diet quality, and weight status. Parents play a powerful role in childr...

The purpose of this work was to describe risk profiles for metabolic syndrome during adolescence and identify the childhood antecedents for these profiles among a nonclinical sample of non-Hispanic, white girls. Participants were part of a longitudinal study (n = 154) and were assessed at 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 years of age. At 13 years, girls were gr...

We explored the relationships among girls' weight status, dairy servings, and total energy intake. The hypothesis that consuming dairy could reduce risk for overweight was evaluated by comparing energy intake and weight status of girls who met or consumed less than the recommended three servings of dairy per day. Participants included 172 11-year-o...

We investigated the validity of the child-feeding questionnaire (CFQ) among parents of adolescents. The original CFQ was developed to assess perceptions of obesity-proneness and child-feeding practices among parents of 2- to 11-year-old children. We modified the CFQ to make it applicable to parents of adolescents and added one item on monitoring su...

This study describes patterns of bias in self-reported dietary recall data of girls by examining differences among girls classified as under-reporters, plausible reporters, and over-reporters on weight, dietary patterns, and psychosocial characteristics. Participants included 176 girls at age 11 and their parents. Girls' weight and height were meas...

To assess cross-sectional and longitudinal relations between television (TV) viewing and girls' body mass index (BMI), weight status, and percentage of body fat. Participants included 169 girls who were measured at ages 7, 9, and 11 years. Height and weight were measured and used to calculate girls' BMI and to classify their weight status. Girls' p...

The authors examined whether pressuring preschoolers to eat would affect food intake and preferences, using a repeated-measures experimental design. In the experimental condition, children were pressured to eat by a request to finish their food. We collected intake data, heights and weights, child-feeding practices data, and children's comments abo...