Abstract
Objective
Squire's Quest! II: Saving the Kingdom of Fivealot, an online video game, promotes fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption. An evaluation
study varied the type of implementation intentions used during the goal-setting process
(none, action, coping, or both action and coping plans). Participants who created
action plans reported higher FV consumption 6 months after baseline. This study assessed
changes by specific meal in that study.
Methods
A total of 400 fourth- and fifth-grade children completed 3 24-hour recalls at baseline
and 6 months later. These were averaged to obtain FV intake. Analyses used repeated-measures
ANCOVA.
Results
There was a significant group by time effect for vegetables at 6 months (P = .01); Action (P = .01) and coping (P = .04) group participants reported higher vegetable intake at dinner. There were
significant increases in fruit intake at breakfast (P = .009), lunch (P = .01), and snack (P < .001).
Conclusions and Implications
Setting meal-specific goals and action or coping plans may enable children to overcome
barriers and consume FV.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessSNEB Member Login
SNEB Members, full access to the journal is a member benefit. Login via the SNEB Website to access all journal content and features.Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of Nutrition Education and BehaviorAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Americans do not meet federal dietary recommendations.J Nutr. 2010; 140: 1832-1838
- US Department of Health and Human Services.Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015–2020. US Government Publishing Office, Washington, DC2015
- The high cost of not consuming fruits and vegetables.J Am Diet Assoc. 2006; 106: 1364-1368
- Critical review: vegetables and fruit in the prevention of chronic diseases.Eur J Nutr. 2012; 51: 637-663
- Dietary patterns and their changes in early childhood.Cent Eur J Public Health. 2012; 20: 126-134
- Consistent dietary patterns identified from childhood to adulthood: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.Br J Nutr. 2005; 93: 923-931
- Stability in consumption of fruit, vegetables, and sugary foods in a cohort from age 14 to age 21.Prev Med. 2001; 33: 217-226
- Tracking of fruit and vegetable consumption from adolescence into adulthood and its longitudinal association with overweight.Br J Nutr. 2007; 98: 431-438
- Getting children to eat more fruit and vegetables: a systematic review.Prev Med. 2006; 42: 85-95
- Exposure to multiple components of a garden-based intervention for middle school students increases fruit and vegetable consumption.Health Promot Pract. 2012; 13: 608-616
- Are dietary interventions effective at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among overweight children? A systematic review.J Epidemiol Commun Health. 2014; 68: 485-490
- In pursuit of change: youth response to intensive goal setting embedded in a serious videogame.J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2007; 1: 907-917
- Serious video games for health: how behavioral science guided the development of a serious video game.Simul Gaming. 2010; 41: 587-606
- What serious video games can offer child obesity prevention.JMIR Serious Games. 2014; 2: e8
- Squire’s Quest! Dietary outcome evaluation of a multimedia game.Am J Prev Med. 2003; 24: 52-61
- Squire’s Quest: Intervention changes occurred at lunch and snack meals.Appetite. 2005; 45: 148-151
- Goal setting is differentially related to change in fruit, juice, and vegetable consumption among fourth-grade children.Health Educ Behav. 2004; 31: 258-269
- Implementation intentions: strong effects of simple plans.Am Psychol. 1999; 54: 493-503
- Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes.Adv Exp Soc Psychol. 2006; 38: 69-119
- A serious video game to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among elementary aged youth (Squire’s Quest! II): rationale, design, and methods.JMIR Res Protoc. 2012; 1: e19
Thompson D, Bhatt R, Vazquez I, et al. Creating action plans in a serious video game increases and maintains child fruit-vegetable intake: a randomized controlled trial [published online ahead of print March 18, 2015]. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. doi:10.1186/s12966-015-0199-z.
- Validating fourth-grade students’ self-report of dietary intake: results from the 5 A Day Power Plus program.J Am Diet Assoc. 1998; 98: 570-572
- Multiple imputation of missing values was not necessary before performing a longitudinal mixed-model analysis.J Clin Epidemiol. 2013; 66: 1022-1028
- A systematic review of behavioral interventions to promote intake of fruit and vegetables.J Am Diet Assoc. 2011; 111: 1523-1535
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of school-based interventions to improve daily fruit and vegetable intake in children aged 5 to 12 y.Am J Clin Nutr. 2012; 96: 889-901
- Measuring fruit and vegetable preferences among 4th- and 5th-grade students.Prev Med. 1993; 22: 866-879
- A randomized school trial of environmental strategies to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption among children.Health Educ Behav. 2004; 31: 65-76
- Changing fruit and vegetable consumption among children: the 5-A-Day Power Plus Program in St. Paul, Minnesota.Am J Public Health. 1998; 88: 603-609
- Increasing children’s fruit and vegetable consumption: a peer-modelling and rewards-based intervention.Eur J Clin Nutr. 2004; 58: 1649-1660
- Increasing parental provision and children’s consumption of lunchbox fruit and vegetables in Ireland: the Food Dudes intervention.Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009; 63: 613-618
- Increasing children's lunchtime consumption of fruit and vegetables: an evaluation of the Food Dudes programme.Public Health Nutr. 2013; 16: 1066-1072
- Incentivizing children’s fruit and vegetable consumption: results of a United States pilot study of the Food Dudes Program.J Nutr Educ Behav. 2013; 45: 54-59
Thompson D, Cullen KW, Liu Y, et al. Effect of goal attainment on fruit and vegetable consumption in a serious videogame. [In preparation]. 2016.
- Goal setting and task performance: 1969-1980.Psychol Bull. 1981; 90: 125-152
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
February 10,
2016
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors' conflict of interest disclosures can be found online with this article on www.jneb.org.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Response to A Comment on Cullen K “From Squires Quest! II: A Serious Video Game Intervention”: Methodological IssuesJournal of Nutrition Education and BehaviorVol. 49Issue 9
- PreviewWe thank the Perin et al1 for their comments about our article, “Meal-specific dietary changes from Squires Quest! II: a serious video game intervention,”2 and concur that studies on video game interventions are important. A recent publication identified children’s use of their action and coping plans in this study.3 The meal changes reflected the video game content, which was described in the protocol article published in 2012.4 The use of a 4-group design for this study (action plan group, coping plan group, both action and coping plan group, and a control group that set a goal but did not create implementation intentions) was used to test the use of implementation intentions on improving fruit and vegetable intake in this sample of children.
- Full-Text
- Preview
- A Comment on Cullen K “From Squires Quest! II: A Serious Video Game Intervention”: Methodological IssuesJournal of Nutrition Education and BehaviorVol. 49Issue 9
