HSE Researchers Compile Scientific Database for Studying Children’s Eating Habits
The database created at HSE University can serve as a foundation for studying children’s eating habits. This is outlined in the study ‘The Influence of Age, Gender, and Social-Role Factors on Children’s Compliance with Age-Based Nutritional Norms: An Experimental Study Using the Dish-I-Wish Web Application.’ The work has been carried out as part of the HSE Basic Research Programme and was presented at the XXVI April International Academic Conference named after Evgeny Yasin.
In addition, an article in the form of a data report (which formed the basis of the conference presentation) has been published in the academic journal Frontiers in Nutrition. The study was conducted by a team from the HSE Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience in Perm, including Anna Radygina, Julia Zaripova, Daria Semenova, and Sofya Kulikova.
The aim of the research was to provide a comprehensive analysis of how age, gender, and social-role factors (a child’s autonomous choice versus choices made according to perceived parental norms) influence the adequacy of food choices among children aged 4–14 in a controlled virtual buffet environment. This age range was selected to encompass key stages in the development of children’s eating behaviour—from the formation of stable food preferences in preschool years to the onset of puberty, when social influence intensifies and conscious attitudes towards food and body image begin to develop. The survey was conducted in kindergartens and schools during the summer school holidays. Parents gave voluntary consent for participation, but they were not present during the children’s surveys, which helped eliminate parental influence on respondents’ answers.
Daria Semenova
‘Unlike parental surveys, which often produce subjective or socially desirable responses, our approach allows the child to express their genuine preferences independently in an engaging format,’ said Daria Semenova, Junior Research Fellow at the HSE Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience in Perm. ‘We also ask children to show which meal they believe their parents would choose for them. This helps reveal the gap between the child’s internal desires and their perception of parental control.’
A distinctive feature of the study is that data on children’s food preferences was collected directly from children themselves rather than from parents, using the specialised Dish-I-Wish web application. This application was developed by staff at the HSE Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience together with HSE University students in Perm. It is currently registered as intellectual property No. 5.0109-2025.
Data collection through the application was organised as follows: in an engaging game-like format, each child was asked to sequentially construct three meals—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. During the first stage, the child made choices as though they could independently decide what and how much to eat. In the second stage, which was structurally identical, the child was asked to complete the same task again, but this time selecting dishes and portion sizes as they believed their parents would choose for them. This design makes it possible to directly compare the child’s own preferences with their perception of parental norms. For each meal, the application provides a visual menu. The child customises the contents of a virtual plate by selecting dishes from an image carousel and adjusts portion sizes using an intuitive slider. The selected foods are displayed on the plate as coloured segments, with their size proportional to the chosen portion. An example of the interface is shown in the illustration.
The dataset collected using Dish-I-Wish includes children’s anthropometric data (weight, height, age, BMI, and estimated energy requirements), detailed nutritional profiles of dishes (calories, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and food density), as well as parental information about family eating habits (such as whether the family usually eats at home or in restaurants), household income, allergies, and the child’s appetite.
Anna Radygina
‘Our dataset is not merely a collection of survey tables. It represents behavioural data gathered in controlled yet natural conditions for children. We hope that open access to it will enable researchers around the world to develop more accurate models of children’s eating behaviour and design effective preventive programmes,’ added Anna Radygina, a co-author of the study.
The dataset has been deposited in the open-access repository Figshare, where it is available to all interested users.
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