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The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare

BACKGROUND: The ecological perspective holds that human behavior depends on the interaction of different environmental factors and personal characteristics, but it lacks validation and operationalization. In the current paper, an ecological view was adopted to examine the interactive impact of sever...

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Autores principales: Gubbels, Jessica S, Van Kann, Dave HH, de Vries, Nanne K, Thijs, Carel, Kremers, Stef PJ
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4002539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24742167
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-11-52
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author Gubbels, Jessica S
Van Kann, Dave HH
de Vries, Nanne K
Thijs, Carel
Kremers, Stef PJ
author_facet Gubbels, Jessica S
Van Kann, Dave HH
de Vries, Nanne K
Thijs, Carel
Kremers, Stef PJ
author_sort Gubbels, Jessica S
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The ecological perspective holds that human behavior depends on the interaction of different environmental factors and personal characteristics, but it lacks validation and operationalization. In the current paper, an ecological view was adopted to examine the interactive impact of several ecological systems on children’s dietary intake and physical activity at childcare or similar facilities. The ecological view was operationalized into three types of interaction: 1) interaction between types of childcare environment (physical, social, political, economic); 2) interaction between micro-systems (the childcare and home environment) in meso-systems; and 3) interaction between childcare environment and child characteristics. The predictive value of each of these interactions was tested based on a systematic review of the literature. DISCUSSION: Several studies support the hypothesis that the influence of the childcare environment on children’s physical activity and diet is moderated by child characteristics (age, gender), but interaction between environmental types as well as between micro-systems is hardly examined in the field of behavioral nutrition and physical activity. Qualitative studies and general child development research provide some valuable insights, but we advocate quantitative research adopting an ecological perspective on environmental influences. SUMMARY: Empirical studies operationalizing a true ecological view on diet and physical activity are scarce. Theorizing and assessment of interaction is advocated to become common practice rather than an exception in behavioral nutrition and physical activity research, in order to move the field forward.
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spelling pubmed-40025392014-04-29 The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare Gubbels, Jessica S Van Kann, Dave HH de Vries, Nanne K Thijs, Carel Kremers, Stef PJ Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act Debate BACKGROUND: The ecological perspective holds that human behavior depends on the interaction of different environmental factors and personal characteristics, but it lacks validation and operationalization. In the current paper, an ecological view was adopted to examine the interactive impact of several ecological systems on children’s dietary intake and physical activity at childcare or similar facilities. The ecological view was operationalized into three types of interaction: 1) interaction between types of childcare environment (physical, social, political, economic); 2) interaction between micro-systems (the childcare and home environment) in meso-systems; and 3) interaction between childcare environment and child characteristics. The predictive value of each of these interactions was tested based on a systematic review of the literature. DISCUSSION: Several studies support the hypothesis that the influence of the childcare environment on children’s physical activity and diet is moderated by child characteristics (age, gender), but interaction between environmental types as well as between micro-systems is hardly examined in the field of behavioral nutrition and physical activity. Qualitative studies and general child development research provide some valuable insights, but we advocate quantitative research adopting an ecological perspective on environmental influences. SUMMARY: Empirical studies operationalizing a true ecological view on diet and physical activity are scarce. Theorizing and assessment of interaction is advocated to become common practice rather than an exception in behavioral nutrition and physical activity research, in order to move the field forward. BioMed Central 2014-04-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4002539/ /pubmed/24742167 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-11-52 Text en Copyright © 2014 Gubbels et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Debate
Gubbels, Jessica S
Van Kann, Dave HH
de Vries, Nanne K
Thijs, Carel
Kremers, Stef PJ
The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare
title The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare
title_full The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare
title_fullStr The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare
title_full_unstemmed The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare
title_short The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare
title_sort next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare
topic Debate
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4002539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24742167
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-11-52
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