Influence of a Video Game on Children’s Attention to Food: Should Games Be Served with a Character During Mealtime?

Abstract

Young children always have picky eating behavior or easily distracted during mealtime. Different game-based approaches have increasingly been used in dietary interventions for children. Characters are often used in gamification applications that aim to motivate proper eating behavior. This study aims to examine whether playing a video game with characters affects fruit intake among young children. An electronic game was developed to encourage children to eat daily necessary fruit positively. The child will receive a medal of victory. Children used an iPad Pro to play the game with a display screen of 9.7 in. Two-and six-year-old children (N = 10) were recruited. Within sex, children were randomly assigned to two conditions: a character in the app, or a non-character control group. Children were told that they could eat fruits freely during playing the game and stop anytime. After app-play, the researchers measured intake and counted the total time the children spent eating and the time they focused on eating fruits. Furthermore, the researchers examined the children’s attitude to the eating-game with Smileyometer. The results show that the treatment group of children who played the video game with the character has consumed more fruits than the control group, but there were no significant differences (p = 802). As for the the eating time spent on fruit, there was also no difference between the two groups (p = 0.933). Additionally, the mean ratings for the game’s fun were 2.06 for the character group and 3.13 for the non-character group.