results of the present study indicate that neither mothers' nor fathers' preferences are significantly related to those of their children. This result is rather surprising in the context of evidence that other elements of the child's en­vironment, including peers (9), siblings (1), television (10), and the context in which foods are presented (II) have been shown to have significant effects on children's food preferences.

Although young children's food preferences are modifi­able, parental preferences do not appear to have a major impact on them. This suggests that nutrition education programs designed to reach young children, their peers, and siblings directly rather than attempting to reach them through their parents, might meet with greater success. D

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research for this article and a previous article (JNE II: 189, 1979) was supported by the Science and Education Administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture under Grant No. 5901-0410-8-77-0 from the Competitive Research Grants Office.

FOOD STAMPS Do Food Stamp and Other Customers Buy the Same Products in Supermarkets? Agricultural Economic Re­port No. 421, 1979. From USDA, Economics, Statistics, and Cooperatives Service, Washington, DC 20250, 19 pp., single copy free.

Food purchases of food stamp customers and all other customers were compared using cash register receipts from eight supermarkets in seven states. Results showed that although foods consumed away from home and home-delivered dairy products were excluded, selections did not appear to yield the greatest nutrition per dollar spent.

When food stamp expenditures are compared with Thrifty Food Plan guidelines, more of the food stamp dollar is spent on meat, poultry, fish, sweets, caffeinated beverages, and citrus fruits; slightly more on other fruits and vegetables; the same on fats and oils; and less on legumes, nuts, potatoes, and grain products. Compared with purchases of other customers, more of the food stamp dollar is spent on meat, poultry, fish, grain prod­ucts, potatoes, sweets, and health and beauty aids; slightly more on fats and oils; and less on fruits, vegetables, caf­feinated beverages, dairy products, and tobacco.

CHILDREN'S ADVERTISING An Eye on Children's Advertising Self-Regulation, A five year report, 1979, 50 pp., free. Children's Advertising Guidelines, rev. 1977, eight-page foldout, free. Children and Advertising: A bibliography, 1978, 53 pp., $5. All from Council of Better Business Bureaus, 845 Third Ave., New York, NY 10022.

18 JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION

LITERATURE CITED

I McCarthy, D. Children's feeding problems in relation to the food aversions of the family. Child Development 6:277, 1935.

2 Bryan, M. S., and M. Lowenberg. The father's influence on young children's food preference. Journal of the American Dietettc Asso­ciation 34:30, 1958.

3 Sanjur, D., and A. D. Scoma. Food habits of low-income children in northern New York. Journal of Nutrttton EducatIOn 2(3):85-95, 1971.

4 Glaser, A. Nursery school can Influence food acceptance. Journal of Home Economics 56:680, 1964.

5 Burt, J. Y., and A. A. Hertzler. Parental influence on the child's food preference. Journal of Nutrition Education 10:127-30, 1978.

6 Birch, L. L. Dimensions of preschool children's food preference. Journal of NutrttlOn Education 11:77-80, 1979.

7 Siegel, S. Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New York: McGraw-Hili Book Co., 1956, pp. 229-38.

8 Birch, L. L. Preschool children" food preferences and consump­tion patterns. Journal of Nutrition Education II: 189-92, 1979.

9 Birch, L. L. Effects of peer models' food choices and eatIng behav­iors on preschooler's food preferences. Child Development, in press.

10 Galst, J. P., and M. A. White. The unhealthy persuader: The rein­forcing value of television and children's purchase influencing at­tempts at the supermarket. Child Development, 47: 1089, 1976.

II Birch, L. L. Using foods as rewards: Effects on food preference,. In Abstracts of individual papers. Vol. 2. Chicago: Society for Re­,earch In Child Development, 1979.

In 1974, a special Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) was established. It seeks to assure that media ad­vertisements which are aimed at children under 12 years of age are true, accurate, and fair to children's developing perceptions. Businesses support this voluntary, self­regulatory effort.

The Children's Advertising Guidelines provides the ba­sis for monitoring ads and responding to complaints from the public and competitors. Some of the guidelines relate directly to nutrition:

• " ... information should be communicated ... with full recognition by the advertiser that the child may learn practices from advertising which can affect his or her health and well-being."

• " ... the advertisement ... should not mislead on performance characteristics such as ... nutri­tional benefits . . ."

• "Representation of food products should be made so as to encourage sound usage of the product with a view toward healthy development of the child and the development of good nutritional practices."

• "Medications, drugs and supplemental vitamins ... should not be advertised to children."

In the five years since its inception, CARU has con­ducted over 90 investigations, each of which is described in this report. About one-fourth relate to food or vita­mins; several originated from consumer complaints. Of the cases investigated, nearly two-thirds resulted in adver­tising being modified or discountinued.

By questioning specific advertisements and seeking their correction within a system which provides for ap­peal, CARU attempts to influence the development of re­sponsible children's advertising.

VOLUME 12 NUMBER 1 1980