Measuring adolescents' eating in the absence of hunger in the home environment using subjective and objective measures.

Eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) has been identified as a behavioral phenotype for obesity. Few studies have reported on objective measures of EAH in adolescents, and fewer yet have objectively measured EAH in a naturalistic, home setting. The purpose of this paper was to examine relations between objective, adolescent-report and parent-report measures of EAH, and to examine variation by sex and race. Participants included 295 predominantly low-income and rural adolescents (mean age = 14.2 ± 0.6 years) and their parents, drawn from the Family Life Project. An EAH task was administered in the home following an ad-libitum meal and compulsory milkshake; EAH was also reported on a web-based survey (both adolescent and parent reports) and adolescents' BMIz was calculated from height and weight, measured in the home or self-reported on the web survey. A high degree of variability in EAH intake was observed (range = 8-741 kcals). Parent...