Overview: In young children, malnutrition combined with living in a chaotic environment can adversely affect cognitive and executive function.
sauce: University of Illinois
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign say that undernourishment and living in a chaotic home environment can adversely affect the higher cognitive skills that govern executive function, memory, attention, and emotional control in young children. I found that there is.
Caregiver studies show that children aged 18 months to 2 years who eat a lot of sweet treats and processed foods may have problems with core components of executive function such as restraint, working memory, planning and organizing abilities. The sex was high.
Approximately 300 families who participated in the study were part of an ongoing birth cohort study, and researchers found that at about 6 weeks of age, children’s diet, weight trajectory, social and emotional skills, and family relationships. Started collecting data about.
Similar studies investigating the association between nutrition and executive function were previously conducted in older and teenage children, but current studies develop these important skills in diet and diet. It was novel in that it focused on children of ages where the family environment could play a vital role.
“Children begin to develop executive function rapidly around the age of 2-5. We have an early period when parents were making important food-related decisions and that gave them cognitive abilities. I wanted to find out the impact, “said lead author Samantha Iwinsky. She is a graduate student who has been involved in the project for several years.
Published in the journal NutrientsThis study was based on extensive data collected from child caregivers, including a dietary intake questionnaire that assessed how often each child consumed a variety of fresh and processed foods.
Parents have also completed a behavioral inventory that measures various aspects of executive function, such as whether a child is easily overwhelmed or has repeated problems playing or speaking loudly.
In addition, parents answered questions about family turmoil, such as whether the child’s home environment is usually run in a quiet and established routine, and whether it is noisy, overcrowded, or confusing.
Previous studies of adolescents and teens have associated poor performance of tasks related to core dimensions of executive function, such as family disruption and behavioral problems, and the ability to focus and control emotions. I was there.
Therefore, U. Analysis by researchers at I. suggests that malnutrition (including regular intake of various snacks and processed foods) is associated with cognitive and behavioral decline in the children studied. it was done.
“We found that high intakes of these foods were associated with low levels of certain indicators, such as emotional control, suppression, planning and organization,” Iwinski said. .. “Even at this young age, dietary intake can affect executive functioning in children at multiple levels.”
The U. of I. team hypothesized that a calm household with predictable routines could mitigate the effects of a poor diet on children’s executive functioning.
Rather than mitigating the relationship between executive function and dietary intake as the team assumed, family disruption was independently correlated with the child’s cognitive skills.
The findings emphasize the importance of both good nutrition and a healthy family environment in promoting the highest cognitive development of children, and co-author Kelly Freeman Bost, with child development. The professor of psychology said.
To mitigate the potential negative impact on a child’s cognitive abilities, Iwinski is an activity where preventive programs help parents establish healthy routines and limit their children’s snacks and consumption of unhealthy foods. And suggested to focus on support.
“If the environment is noisy or disorganized, children may not be able to understand the surrounding signals, and routine and inconsistentness can affect their attention and emotional regulation.” Said Iwinski.
“These children may not be able to interpret and respond appropriately to clues in certain social and emotional situations.”
To better understand the correlations found in current studies and to see how they persist or evolve as children grow older, Iwinski and her co-authors are now the same at age 5-6. We are planning a follow-up survey with the family and their children.
However, due to the lack of racial, ethnic, and economic diversity in the sample, it may not be possible to generalize the findings to other populations. Prior to claiming causality, researchers said further research was needed on diverse populations and long-term and experimental project design.
Bost and Iwinsky co-authored a treatise with Professor Sharon M. Donovan, a faculty member at the University of Illinois, and Melissa M. Noel, Chairman of the Nutrition and Health Committee. Barbara H. Fiese, co-director of the STRONG Kids2 project and an emeritus professor of human development and family research.
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About the news of this neurodevelopment and diet research
author: Sharita Forest
sauce: University of Illinois
contact: Sharita Forest-University of Illinois
image: The image is in the public domain
Independent research: Open access.
“Effects of Home Chaos and Dietary Intake on Infant Executive Function” by Samantha Iwinsky et al. nutrition
Overview
Impact of family chaos and dietary intake on executive functioning of infants
Executive function (EF) in children emerges over time and can be formed by the home environment and dietary intake. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how these factors affect the EF of 18-24 month old children.
This study tested a model that investigated the relationship between parental reported dietary intake, family disruption, and childhood EF.
The sample consisted of 294 families participating in the STRONG Kids 2 Birth Cohort Study on Nutrition and Child Health. Caregivers completed the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), Confusion, Khabab, Order Scale (CHAOS), and Executive Function Behavior Assessment Catalog.®-Preschool version (BRIEF-P) for evaluating model variables. Regression analysis revealed a significant and independent association between various snacks and processed foods and the two EF subscales.
There was also a significant association between household turmoil and each EF subscale. There was no significant palliative effect.
These findings suggest that family households characterized by dysregulation are associated with EF difficulties in early childhood children and that the role of unhealthy dietary intake in children’s EF needs to be further investigated. I am.
Future longitudinal studies, including a multimethod approach, are needed to document the mechanism by which family turmoil affects children’s EF over time.
