“When my plate is empty”: Internal vs. external cues to meal cessation reported by children

• Eating behaviors are complex, and influenced by both internal and external cues.
• External cues to eating are developed, and can be modified, during childhood.
• This study provides a qualitative and quantitative investigation of children’s understanding of meal cessation.
• Findings suggest the need to consider cues in light of parental authority and practices of consumption.

Although interest in internal and external cues around eating trace back many decades, no published research explores the cues that children use (internal or external) of meal cessation. Combining qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, this study explores how 402 Canadian children (177 focus group participants; 225 survey respondents) responded to questions around ending a meal. The objectives were to investigate children’s understanding of meal cessation, and to determine whether age and gender influenced their tendency to identify internal or external cues. While no statistically significant difference was found between boys and girls in terms of using external or internal cues, both the quantitative and qualitative approaches reveal that younger children are more likely to cite external cues. Older children were more likely to report internal cues and less likely to report external cues. Yet the younger children’s tendency to cite the “empty plate” (instead of the “full stomach”) as the cue that dinner is over needs to be considered, not simply as a normative cue, but also in light of parental authority and practices of consumption. Stated differently, the external cues cited by children may not simply be about ignoring satiety cues; instead they might reflect other cultural practices around eating.