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Prior studies have demonstrated that social norms or cues of others' eating behaviors serve as powerful guides for one's own eating behaviors. Yet it remains underexplored whether young children are susceptible to social pressure by remote peers when faced with a conflict between what they prefer and the healthy choices of a group majority. Here we examined whether preschool-aged children conformed to healthy food choices of remote peers. Following a modified Asch conformity paradigm, the present study used videos of remote confederates' food preferences to test whether 89 3- to 6-year-old Singaporean preschoolers conformed to remote peers' healthy food choices (fruits and vegetables). Participants were asked to make a series of food choices when faced with two food options (healthy, unhealthy), both independently and after having viewed remote peers make healthy food choices (fruits, vegetables). Results showed a significant level of conformity, such that participants altered their initially unhealthy food choices to match the healthy choices of remote peers for 29% of trials. Age and BMI z-scores were also associated with rates of food choice conformity. The finding that young children may conform to food-related behaviors of remote peers offers the potential promise of interventions involving remote peers in promoting healthier dietary choices of young children.

Objective: Socioeconomic mobility, i.e., changing socioeconomic status (SES) between adolescence and adulthood, may impact health through changing resources, social status, and health‐related behaviors. This analysis examined whether subjective SES contributes to associations of mobility with metabolic health (BMI and metabolic syndrome) and unhealthy diets (fast‐food consumption and sugar‐sweetened beverage [SSB] consumption). Methods: National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data were used (n = 4132). Mobility was defined as the difference between adolescent (collected 1994–1995, ages 11–19 years) and adult (collected 2016–2018, ages 33–43 years) SES. Linear and logistic regressions examined associations of mobility with metabolic and dietary outcomes and mediation by subjective SES. Results: Substantial upward mobility was associated with lower risk of high SSB consumption compared with stable disadvantaged SES (risk difference: −0.10 [95% CI: −0.16 to −0.041]). Subjective SES mediated associations of upward, but not downward, mobility with risks of developing metabolic syndrome, high fast‐food consumption, and high SSB consumption; upward mobility was associated with higher subjective SES and lower risks of poor metabolic and dietary outcomes. Conclusions: The finding that subjective SES contributed to associations between upward mobility and better health may inform development of interventions designed to promote healthier diets and reduce socioeconomic disparities in metabolic health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Low social standing and teasing are independently associated with increased body mass index (BMI) and overeating in children. However, children with low social status may be vulnerable to teasing. Methods We tested the statistical interaction of subjective social status (SSS) and subjective socioeconomic status (SSES) and teasing distress on BMI, fat mass index (FMI), and eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) in children (M age = 13.09 years, SD  =   2.50 years; 27.8% overweight/obese). Multiple linear regressions identified the main effects of self-reported SSS (compared to peers in school), distress due to teasing, and their interaction on BMI (n  =   115), FMI (n  =   114), and child- (n  =   100) and parent-reported (n  =   97) EAH. Results Teasing distress was associated with greater BMI, FMI, and child-reported EAH due to negative affect (a subscale of EAH) and total EAH scores. There were no associations of SSS with these outcomes. However, there was an interaction between SSS and teasing distress for BMI, FMI, and EAH from negative affect such that lower SSS was associated with higher BMI, FMI, and EAH from negative affect in the presence of teasing distress. However, there were no main effects or interactions (with teasing distress) of SSES on the outcomes. Conclusions These findings suggest that the relationship between lower SSS and increased adiposity and overeating behaviors may be exacerbated by other threats to social standing, such as teasing. Children exposed to multiple social threats may be more susceptible to eating beyond physiological need and obesity than those who experience a single form of perceived social disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across three studies, conducted between Spring 2020 and Spring 2021, we tested whether exposure to an Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) target person wearing a face mask would increase or decrease White Americans' perceived threat from and positivity toward AAPI individuals. Although results varied by study, a single‐paper meta‐analysis revealed that the masked (compared to unmasked) AAPI target resulted in greater positivity toward AAPIs, due to reduced perceptions of both symbolic threat to group values and realistic threat to group health. Positivity toward AAPIs did not reliably differ after exposure to a masked versus unmasked White target. Implications for interventions that encourage COVID‐safe behaviors and combat anti‐AAPI attitudes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]