Self-Regulation and Eating Behaviors in Childhood

Children begin to develop the capacity to regulate their intake of food from infancy, gradually integrating internal hunger and satiety cues with cognitive control processes. Self-regulation of eating behaviour encompasses both ‘bottom-up’ drives—such as biological appetitive signals and emotional reactivity—and ‘top-down’ processes, notably executive function and effortful control, that enable inhibition of impulses, working memory, and attentional focusing. Appetite self-regulation is reflected in behaviours such as delaying gratification, resisting highly palatable foods, and adjusting subsequent meals to compensate for prior intake. Dysregulated eating, including eating in the absence of hunger or emotional overeating, can emerge when cognitive control is still maturing or when environmental factors—such as parental feeding practices of restriction or pressure—interact with individual temperament. Measurement approaches span laboratory‐based tasks (for example, preload–test meal paradigms), naturalistic food diary analyses, self‐report questionnaires and latent profile methods that identify distinct self‐regulatory phenotypes. Evidence supports reciprocal influences between child self‐regulation and caregiver strategies, with both shaping trajectories of diet quality and weight gain. Global efforts now focus on integrating theoretical models of general self‐regulation with appetite regulation, informing interventions that combine cognitive training, enhancement of self‐efficacy and guidance for adaptive feeding practices to foster lifelong healthy eating habits.

Research from Nature Portfolio

No recent Nature Portfolio content available.

Self-Regulation and Eating Behaviors in Childhood publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in self-regulation and eating behaviors in childhood across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Appetite self-regulation: The ability to modulate food intake in response to internal hunger and fullness cues.

Executive function: A set of cognitive processes, including inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility, that support goal-directed behaviour.

Effortful control: A temperament trait reflecting the capacity to suppress a dominant response in favour of a subdominant one.

Caloric compensation: Adjustment of energy intake in subsequent meals based on prior consumption to maintain energy balance.

Self-efficacy: An individual’s belief in their own ability to organise and execute actions required to manage specific situations.

References

1. Children’s eating behaviours and related constructs: conceptual and theoretical foundations and their implications. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (2023).
2. Calorie Compensation Patterns Observed in App-Based Food Diaries. Nutrients (2023).
3. Self-Efficacy to Regulate Eating Behaviors Scale for Children: A Validation Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2023).
4. Conceptualizing and Measuring Appetite Self-Regulation Phenotypes and Trajectories in Childhood: A Review of Person-Centered Strategies. Frontiers in Nutrition (2021).
5. “Food” and “non-food” self-regulation in childhood: a review and reciprocal analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (2020).
6. Young Children’s Eating in the Absence of Hunger: Links With Child Inhibitory Control, Child BMI, and Maternal Controlling Feeding Practices. Frontiers in Psychology (2021).