UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Helping children develop healthy diets is no easy task. The practice is dependent on the crucial roles families play in children’s eating behaviors and orientations toward food. The 2019 National Symposium on Family Issues will provide an overview of the many interconnections between families and food on Oct. 21-22 at the Nittany Lion Inn.

With obesity being a major issue in the United States, the links between mothers’ dietary patterns in pregnancy to infants’ food acceptance and parenting practices to child eating behaviors can provide insight on combating unhealthy outcomes for kids. Sessions over the one-and-a half day period will focus on the family ecologies of food insecurity, eating behavior, and overweight and obesity in youth.

Registration is now available online and free to all Penn State students, faculty and staff.

The Symposium on Family Issues is sponsored annually by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Penn State sponsors include the Social Science Research Institute; Population Research Institute; Department of Sociology and Criminology; Child Study Center; Department of Human Development and Family Studies; Department of Psychology; Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education;  Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center; Department of Kinesiology; Department of Biobehavioral Health; Department of Nutritional Sciences; and Clinical and Translational Science Institute.