[Source: Science Daily]

A University of Texas at Dallas psychologist has examined the preconceptions about the effects of emotions on children’s eating habits, creating the framework for future studies of how dietary patterns evolve in early childhood.

Dr. Shayla C. Holub, head of the psychological sciences PhD program and associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, demonstrated that children from 4½ to 9 years old chose chocolate candy over goldfish crackers more frequently in response to both happiness and sadness.

Her paper, “The effects of happiness and sadness on children’s snack consumption,” was recently published online in the journal Appetite. It was co-authored with Dr. Cin Cin Tan, research faculty at University of Michigan’s Center for Human Growth and Development, who completed her doctoral dissertation on the topic with Holub at UT Dallas.

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