Diseño experimental de asociación libre semántica sobre alimentos y marcas en población infantil

ntroduction: This experimental study focuses on the cognitive development of children and its association with nutrition. The semantic associations of boys and girls aged 6-13 years from nine different cities in Colombia (N = 454) were analyzed. Method: The design is exploratory and descriptive correlational cross-sectional. The study utilized a discrete free association task, instructing participants to respond to a critical word with the first five words that came to mind. The task covered 100 Spanish food words and 20 brands of food products. Results: J-values are presented by age, socioeconomic status, gender and grade level. The identification of significant similarities (p-value < .001) between the distributions of critical words and the most frequently emitted (f), highlighted the hedonic influence on children’s food preferences, identifying 20 frequent descriptors of pleasure or hedonic topics in food consumption, with terms such as sweet (f = 234) and rich (f = 104) standing out. Conclusions: The study observed a population misinterpretation of the concept healthy (f = 52) in relation to food. The analysis of semantic associations for the top 20 infant food brands, supported by Jaccard’s index, revealed ten significant connections for each brand. These findings suggest important implications for understanding organoleptic food and product learning processes in childhood. The study emphasizes the importance of addressing hedonic perceptions and fostering a more precise understanding of health-related concepts within the realm of children’s dietary preferences.