Comparing decision making in average and overweight children and adolescents.

Abstract

The current study investigates the aspects of self-regulation skills in overweight and normal-weight children, which may be related to their overeating problems. It is hypothesised that overweight children may show poor decision-making behaviour, and this may be because of two processes: hypersensitivity to reward or future insensitivity. Average weight children (n=66) and overweight children (n=64) between 11 and 16 years were tested with the developmentally appropriate analogue of the Iowa gambling task. The results reveal that overweight children show decision-making failure ensued from future insensitivity. These findings provide support for the reward deficiency hypothesis or the anhedonic route to obesity in children.