These items were presented in large bowls 20 oz, Each participant was given individual preweighed bowls of snacks, and they were asked not to share their bowls with the other participant. The participants were also provided with 8 oz As an alternative to eating, the participants were provided with different games and activities, including some books, puzzles, board games, and agility games list available on request to the author.

Because we used a free-eating paradigm, each youth was both a participant and a partner. The data were stacked following the Double Entry Method developed by Kenny et al The data of each participant was entered twice: Double data entry and a quality check were performed before the statistical analysis was performed to ensure the accuracy of the data.

Presence of human friends and pet dogs as moderators of autonomic responses to stress in women.

Preliminary analyses of variance ANOVAs were performed on baseline variables food intake before the session and hunger or liking of the study food to determine whether there were differences between conditions. A Levene's test of equality of variance was performed to test the assumption of homogeneity of variance across conditions. This study examined how overweight and nonoverweight youths modify their level of eating as a function of their familiarity with their eating partner. The analysis of these data requires accounting for dyadic analysis, which violates the assumption of independence between observations required for ANOVA.

The analysis of these data was completed by using mixed regression models MRMs; also called random-effects models. MRMs provide a useful approach to account for interdependence in 2-person relationships 17 — These models allow simultaneous estimates of the parameters of the regression model and the variance components that account for the data clustering Three mixed regression models were conducted to assess the relation between the youths' food intake ie, total energy intake and consumption of nutrient-dense and energy-dense foods and the following predictors:.

To test the hypothesis that the effect of weight status overweight youth eat more with overweight youth and the facilitative effect of familiarity friends eat more than unfamiliar peers were additive, we conducted a likelihood ratio test. A chi-square test was used to compare the log-likelihood of the simpler model and the log-likelihood of the more complex model involving the weight status of the participant and the weight status of the eating partner and their interaction.

We expected greater total energy intake when overweight participants were eating with an overweight friend. The second question of interest was whether acquaintance and the weight status of the eating partners were related to similarities in intake. The assessment of relations between 2 measures via Pearson correlations applies only to situations in which members of a dyad are distinguishable ie, one unequivocally belongs to the X group and the other unequivocally belongs to the Y group.

When the designation of members of a pair is arbitrary ie, when there is no way to disentangle variability due to a specific individual , intraclass correlation coefficients ICCs provide accurate estimations of the magnitude of the relations between variables 21 , 22 , and they are interpreted in the same fashion as were Pearson correlations Characteristics of the study population are presented in Table 2. Three participants were African American and 5 were Hispanic or Latino.

The remainder of the sample was white. Age and BMI-for-age percentiles SD of the participants as a function of their eating partners' weight status and acquaintance 1. Our first hypothesis related to the effect of the relation between participants. Participants eating with a friend had a greater energy intake and consumed more energy-dense and nutrient-dense foods than did participants eating with an unfamiliar peer Figure 1.

We further predicted that the magnitude of this effect would be greater for boys than for girls. We further hypothesized that overweight youths, but not normal-weight youths, eating with an overweight friend or peer would have a greater energy intake than would overweight participants eating with a nonoverweight eating partner. Overweight participants eating with an overweight partner had a greater energy intake and consumed more nutrient-dense and more energy-dense food than did overweight participants eating with a nonoverweight eating partner.

In contrast, nonoverweight participants eating with other nonoverweight participants ate more energy-dense food than did nonoverweight participants eating with overweight youths Figure 2. However, inspection of Table 3 seems to indicate that nonoverweight participants were influenced by the weight status of strangers, but not by the weight status of their friends.

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Nonoverweight participants eating with an overweight unfamiliar peer had a lower energy intake than nonoverweight participants who were eating with nonoverweight strangers; whereas this was not the case for nonoverweight participants eating with their friends. Overweight participants eating with an overweight partner consumed more energy-dense foods than did overweight participants eating with a nonoverweight eating partner. Nonoverweight participants eating with other nonoverweight participants consumed more energy-dense foods than did nonoverweight partners eating with an overweight eating partner.

Participants' energy intake in kcal as a function of their eating partners' weight status and acquaintance 1. The likelihood ratio test indicated that the effect of weight status of the co-eaters and the effect of acquaintance were additive. As expected, overweight participants eating with an overweight friend had a greater energy intake than did participants in all other conditions Table 3.

The ICCs as a function of acquaintance and weight status of the eating partners are shown in Table 4. Matching of intake was high and statistically significant in all conditions, with the exception of the dyads of overweight unfamiliar peers and overweight friends for the consumption of nutrient-dense foods. Intraclass correlation coefficients ICCs between the partners' intake as a function of their eating partners' weight status and acquaintance 1. When comparing ICCs among friends and strangers, all coefficients were found to be statistically significant.

Findings indicate that both overweight and nonoverweight participants eating with a friend ate significantly more than did participants eating in the presence of an unfamiliar peer. These results are consistent with research in adults indicating that eating that takes place among strangers is in marked contrast with eating that occurs among friends and family members 4 , 5 , 8.


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This study further supports previous findings 12 , 24 , ie, that overweight participants eating with an overweight partner had a greater energy intake and consumed more nutrient-dense and more energy-dense food than did overweight participants eating with a nonoverweight eating partner. The present data further extend our previous work in showing that overweight friends ate more than participants in all the other conditions, which suggests that the effect of the partners' weight statuses may add to the facilitative effect of familiarity friends eat more than unfamiliar peers and result in greater energy intake in overweight youth and their friends.

In contrast, nonoverweight participants seemed to be influenced by the weight status of strangers, but not by the weight status of their friends. Nonoverweight participants eating with an overweight unfamiliar peer had a lower energy intake than did nonoverweight participants who were eating with nonoverweight strangers; however, nonoverweight participants eating with their friends consumed more food regardless of the partners' weight status.

One possibility is that friends decrease inhibition, act as a permission giver for indulging and overeating, and push upward the limit of acceptable eating. Conceivably, individuals interacting with well-known others friends or relatives are generally assured of their affection and have less need to monitor what and how much they eat to convey a good impression.

Alternatively, it is possible that overweight participants paired with friends were eating as much as they would normally eat when at home, whereas overweight individuals paired with unfamiliar eating partners were restricting their intake. Regardless of the direction of the effect, however, the intake of one partner likely influenced the intake of the other youth, implicating some form of feedback loop or modeling as a causal factor.

In fact, matching of intake was high in all conditions with the exceptions of the dyads of overweight unfamiliar peers for the consumption of nutrient-dense food, energy-dense food, and total energy intake and overweight friends for the consumption of nutrient-dense foods. Furthermore, the relation between co-eaters' food consumption was greater among friends than among unfamiliar peers.

These results are important considering the role of friends as agents of change in childhood and adolescence. Christakis and Fowler 25 recently described the spread of obesity among adults with shared social networks, implicating some form of social influence as a causal factor.

Making A Difference

The present study shows that some more proximal factors may be involved, and that similarity in weight status may result, at least in part, from the normative influence of friends. Conceivably, children and youth use the amount of food eaten by their family and friends as an indication of appropriate eating, and repeated exposure to these norms presumably shapes eating habits and behaviors over time and contributes to similarity in weight status and behaviors.

Research shows that friendship functions protectively when children are similar to their friends in terms of prosocial tendencies and as a risk factor when there is behavioral concordances in negative traits Behavioral similarities among overweight youths may increase the difficulty of promoting long-term changes because the youths' social network is likely to reinforce overeating. This study is not without limitations. First, it is important to note that our sample did not include an even distribution of participants across conditions, which may qualify the results. Observation of the means across experimental cells indicates that nonoverweight participants eating with an overweight participant consumed significantly less food than nonoverweight participants eating with a nonoverweight partner.

Second, our sample was small and homogenous in terms of ethnicity. Research shows some ethnic differences in terms of body-image concerns and pressure to be thin 27 , and it is possible that these differences extend to the effect of social influence on eating behavior.

Presence of human friends and pet dogs as moderators of autonomic responses to stress in women.

These findings may not generalize to youth from other geographic regions, and the limited scope of this study prevents generalizing beyond the children who participated in the study. Finally, this study focused on youth's snack consumption, and it is not clear whether similar results would be obtained for mealtime behaviors or whether the effect of friends and unfamiliar peers on the youths' food intake is sustained over days across several eating episodes.

Nevertheless, the data depict a coherent pattern of results that suggests new directions for research in the area of peer influence on youths' eating behavior. Research in adults described a similarity in weight statuses among friends Future research would benefit from exploring mechanisms responsible for similarity in body weight and eating behaviors and whether friends and peers can be used to promote positive change in youth. All authors certified that they had no financial interests to disclose nor any conflict of interest.

National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Am J Clin Nutr. Published online Jun Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Received Feb 19; Accepted May This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Procedures On arrival to the laboratory, participants heard an assent script and were asked to sign if they were willing to participate. Food and games The participants had access to 2 energy-dense and 2 nutrient-dense foods Table 1.

Open in a separate window. Analytic plan Because we used a free-eating paradigm, each youth was both a participant and a partner. Individual characteristics Double data entry and a quality check were performed before the statistical analysis was performed to ensure the accuracy of the data.


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Food consumption data This study examined how overweight and nonoverweight youths modify their level of eating as a function of their familiarity with their eating partner. Three mixed regression models were conducted to assess the relation between the youths' food intake ie, total energy intake and consumption of nutrient-dense and energy-dense foods and the following predictors: Relation between co-eaters' food intake The second question of interest was whether acquaintance and the weight status of the eating partners were related to similarities in intake.

She said that, in his view, their relationship had changed from a romantic partnership to a doctor-patient relationship. He felt that her illness was becoming as debilitating for him as it was for her. Our friend was suffering, body and soul. She needed Jesus to heal her, but she no longer had the stamina or will to approach Jesus herself. And so that night, Jesus came to her in our feeble words, our tearful commiseration, and our shared pizza.

What could any of us say? None of us had any idea what their lives were like, separately or together. We only knew that she was heartbroken and angry, railing against her fragile body, her former boyfriend and God — all, she felt, were betraying her. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.

I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home. I was a bit stunned by this advice. But now I see what he was offering her: Let us do it for you for awhile. Let us pray and trust God for you.

Reasons why presence of best friends in life makes your life complete..

Let us have faith on your behalf. Tonight, you just rest. He was carrying her stretcher to God.

Roy Fields _ In the Presence of Angels

He was digging through the roof and placing her in front of Jesus. Or was he just too tired? Did he ask his friends to take him to Jesus the Healer, or was it their idea? Were their friendships straining and cracking under the weight of his sickness? I was moving all my stuff into an impersonal, dusty storage space as I extricated myself from a deteriorating marriage.

He needed to be brought into the presence of our merciful God. The healing that Jesus offered was unlike anything anyone there expected. Jesus first bestows on their dear paralyzed friend forgiveness, and only later adds the ability to walk. Did his friends know?

But Jesus, who loves all of us more fiercely than even our closest companions, knew exactly what the man needed.

And he provided it. Do this in remembrance of me.