Crystal Smit

General Introduction 1 15 to directly adjust their dietary-related behavior to that of others (Cruwys et al., 2015; Vartanian, Spanos, Herman, & Polivy, 2015). Research on social modeling in children has consistently shown that children tend to adapt their own food choices and intake to those of their table companions. That is, children eat or drink more or less when their peers also eat or drink more or less food (Cruwys et al., 2015; Salvy, Coelho, Kieffer, & Epstein, 2007; Salvy, Romero, Paluch, & Epstein, 2007). Injunctive norms refer to the perceptions of what behavior is expected by others in the social group (Cialdini et al., 1991). For example, an injunctive norm related to water drinking might be that children think their peers expect them to drink a certain amount of water. Two mechanisms that could explain how injunctive norms influence children’s healthy drinking behavior are impression management and social facilitation. Impression management is the tendency for children to adjust what and how much they eat or drink in order to convey a good impression of themselves to others (Leary & Kowalski, 1990; Vartanian, 2015). Research has found that children consume less in the presence of other peers compared to when they are alone (Salvy, Coelho, et al., 2007; Salvy, Romero, et al., 2007) and that their weight status plays a role when eating with a normal-weight eating companion (Bevelander, Anschütz, & Engels, 2012). Conveying a good impression by suppressing food intake may be due to the fact that consuming large amounts of food is associated with obesity (Vartanian, Herman, & Polivy, 2007). Social facilitation refers to an increase in food intake due to the mere presence of others (Herman, 2015; Zajonc, 1965). This increased food intake is believed to be proportional to the number of individuals (de Castro & Brewer, 1992). Research has consistently found that children consumed more food in larger groups than in smaller groups (de Castro, 1994; Lumeng & Hillman, 2007). All together, these interrelatedmechanisms indicate that observing and interacting with peers can influence children’s behaviors with regard to food intake and choice (Salvy & Bowker, 2013; Salvy et al., 2012). Despite this important role of peers, they are relatively overlooked when developing interventions aimed at preventing childhood obesity. The involvement of children’s peer networks in interventions