My research focuses on the development of children’s food preferences which are important for children’s current health and, given that they tend to remain stable, also critical for adult health.
Despite sustained health education campaigns, many children’s diet are not nutritionally balanced. There are numerous, complex reasons for this. My research investigates the following: determinants of children’s food preferences and food fussiness (e.g. maternal psychopathology; child temperament; genetic taste sensitivity); the role of parents’ feeding practices and feeding goals (including the impact on food poverty/insecurity); and the influence of family eating environment dimensions (e.g. shared-meals; parental self-efficacy; parents feeding goals).
I have expertise and experience in a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including experimental design; randomised-controlled trials; cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys; questionnaire development; Systematic Reviews; qualitative methodologies, including focus group studies and IPA.