Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 28, Issue 3, June 1997, Pages 239-254
Appetite

Regular Article
Temperament and Food Neophobia in Children and their Mothers

https://doi.org/10.1006/appe.1996.0078Get rights and content

Abstract

We obtained measures of behavioral neophobia, rated neophobia, temperament, and liking for novel and familiar foods for 81 pairs of siblings (ranging in age from 5–11 yearsand their mothers. The children's data revealed a decrease with age in behavioral but not rated neophobia, and there were positive correlations between both measures of neophobia and the temperament dimensions of emotionality, shyness, and negative reactions to foods. In addition, liking for good-tasting novel foods was negatively related to shyness and to negative reactions to foods. For mothers, both measures of neophobia were related to negative reactions to foods and unrelated to any other temperament dimension. The data revealed little evidence of family resemblance (mother-child or sibling-siblingin food neophobia.

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Requests for reprints should be sent to either author: Department of Psychology, Erindale College, University of Toronto, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, L5L 1C6.

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