25. Multiple Imputation for Nonresponse in Surveys. By D. B. Rubin. ISBN 0 471 08705 X. Wiley, Chichester, 1987. 258 pp. £30.25.

Multiple Imputation for Nonresponse in Surveys

Relationships between parenting style, feeding style and feeding practices and fruit and vegetable consumption in early childhood.

Negative attitudes toward invertebrates are a deep-seated, visceral response among Western peoples. These internalized aversions toward insects and other terrestrial arthropods, both in general and specifically as a food source, subtly and systemically contribute to unsustainable global foodways. Insect cuisine is, for Westerners, emblematic of the alien, a threat to our psychological and cultural identity. Yet failure to embrace entomophagy prevents us from seeing the full humanity of those of other classes, races, and cultures, and leads to agricultural and food policy decisions that fail in their objectives to improve nourishment for all people. Key to enabling the world’s peoples to live sustainably with the land are: (1) awareness of the psychological and cultural barriers to a more insect-positive perspective (2) embracing insects as a desirable food resource, (3) understanding the processes by which those barriers are constructed, their negative consequences, and (4) identifying strategies for transforming our attitudes.

How then shall we eat? Insect-eating attitudes and sustainable foodways

Inheritance—the influence of ancestors on the pheno- types of their descendants—translates natural selection into evolu- tionary change. For the past century, inheritance has been concep- tualized almost exclusively as the transmission of DNA sequence variation from parents to offspring in accordance with Mendelian rules, but advances in cell and developmental biology have now revealed a rich array of inheritance mechanisms. This empirical evi- dence calls for a unified conception of inheritance that combines genetic and nongenetic mechanisms and encompasses the known range of transgenerational effects, including the transmission of ge- netic and epigenetic variation, the transmission of plastic phenotypes (acquired traits), and the effects of parental environment and ge- notype on offspring phenotype. We propose a unified theoretical framework based on the Price equation that can be used to model evolution under an expanded inheritance concept that combines the effects of genetic and nongenetic inheritance. To illustrate the utility and generality of this framework, we show how it can be applied to a variety of scenarios, including nontransmissible environmental noise, maternal effects, indirect genetic effects, transgenerational epi- genetic inheritance, RNA-mediated inheritance, and cultural

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A unified approach to the evolutionary consequences of genetic and nongenetic inheritance.

Parental influences on children's eating behaviour and characteristics of successful parent-focussed interventions.

The role of familiarity in dietary development

This meta-analysis investigates the effect of an eating disorder on bone mineral density in two eating disorder subtypes. Following conflicting findings in previous literature, this study finds that not only anorexia nervosa, but also bulimia nervosa has a detrimental effect on BMD. Key predictors of this relationship are discussed. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates bone mineral density (BMD) in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) in comparison to healthy controls (HCs). AN has been associated with low BMD and a risk of fractures and mixed results have been obtained for the relationship between BN and BMD. Deciphering the effect these two ED subtypes on BMD will determine the effect of low body weight (a characteristic of AN) versus the effects of periods of restrictive eating and malnutrition which are common to both AN and BN. We conducted a systematic search through the electronic databases MedLine, EMBASE and PsychInfo and the Cochrane Library to investigate and quantify this relationship. We screened 544 articles and included 27 studies in a random-effect meta-analysis and calculated the standardised mean difference (SMD) in BMD between women with a current diagnosis of AN (n = 785) vs HCs (n = 979) and a current diagnosis of BN (n = 187) vs HCs (n = 350). The outcome measures investigated were spinal, hip, femoral neck and whole body BMD measured by DXA or DPA scanning. A meta-regression investigated the effect of factors including age, duration since diagnosis, duration of amenorrhea and BMI on BMD. The mean BMI of participants was 16.65 kg/m(2) (AN), 21.16 kg/m(2) (BN) and 22.06 kg/m(2) (HC). Spine BMD was lowest in AN subjects (SMD, -3.681; 95 % CI, -4.738, -2.625; p < 0.0001), but also lower in BN subjects compared with HCs (SMD, -0.472; 95 % CI, -0.688, -0.255; p < 0.0001). Hip, whole body and femoral neck BMD were reduced to a statistically significant level in AN but not BN groups. The meta-regression was limited by the number of included studies and did not find any significant predictors. This meta-analysis confirms the association between low BMD and AN and presents a strong argument for assessing BMD not only in patients with AN, but also in patients with BN.

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A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between eating disorders and bone density.

 Psychological research and clinical practice rely heavily on psychometric testing for measuring psychological constructs that represent symptoms of psychopathology, individual difference characteristics, or cognitive profiles Test-retest reliability assessment is crucial in the development of psychometric tools, helping to ensure that measurement variation is due to replicable differences between people regardless of time, target behavior, or user profile While psychological studies testing the reliability of measurement tools are pervasive in the literature, many still discuss and assess this form of reliability inappropriately with regard to the specified aims of the study or the intended use of the tool The current paper outlines important factors to consider in test-retest reliability analyses, common errors, and some initial methods for conducting and reporting reliability analyses to avoid such errors The paper aims to highlight a persistently problematic area in psychological assessme

/pdf/assessing-test-retest-reliability-of-psychological-measures-2rdbf7lnsw.pdf

Assessing test-retest reliability of psychological measures: persistent methodological problems

Objectives. This research compared sensory processing and personality traits involved in deciding to try a novel fruit (guava) in adults and children.



Design. The research employed an age, sex, and food neophobia matched between-participant design to examine sensory decision making in choosing to eat a novel fruit.



Methods. Forty-four adults (Study 1) and 68 children (Study 2) took part. In each study, participants were separated into two groups to investigate whether prior assessment of a familiar and liked fruit (apple) that shares similar visual characteristics to the target novel fruit (guava) increased the likelihood that an individual would decide to try it. All participants completed appetitive and familiarity ratings by sensory stages: vision, smell, and touch, prior to trying (tasting) the fruit. Participants (or their parents) also completed the general and food neophobia scales and adults also completed the sensation-seeking scale.



Results. Twenty-eight adults (64%) tried the guava and 16 did not (36%). In the second study, 22 children decided not to try the novel fruit (32%). Significant predictors of whether the adult tried the target fruit were Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Experience Seeking, General Neophobia, and ‘appealing to touch’. In children, Food Neophobia, concurrent presentation of a familiar fruit alongside the target and visual assessment of the target predicted decision to try the novel fruit.



Conclusions. This study suggests that touch is pertinent to adults’ decision to try a novel fruit, whereas visual cues appear to be more important for children.

Developmental differences in sensory decision making involved in deciding to try a novel fruit.

This paper outlines what is currently understood, and what can be hypothesized about paediatric feeding dysfunctions. The paper highlights the current lack of awareness of psychological factors implicated in infant and child feeding, and promotes a behavioural approach to the identification, referral and treatment of non-organic derived feeding problems and disorders. Potential risk factors to poor feeding development are outlined, and characteristic child and caregiver behaviours which may signify problems with feeding are suggested. The aim of this paper is to promote early identification of these symptoms in frontline healthcare in the hope of increasing early intervention before physical complaints, medical complications and/or disorders arise.

Victoria K. Aldridge

Papers

The role of familiarity in dietary development

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between eating disorders and bone density.

Assessing test-retest reliability of psychological measures: persistent methodological problems

Developmental differences in sensory decision making involved in deciding to try a novel fruit.

Identifying clinically relevant feeding problems and disorders.