Children who eat with their hands would be more rowdy

Eating foods by taking them with their hands and biting into them could make children more rowdy. This is what reveals a new study from Cornell University (United States) published this Tuesday in the journal Eating Behaviors. To reach this conclusion, the scientists conducted a two-day experiment on 12 elementary school children (6-10 years old) at a summer camp. On the first day, half of the children were seated at a picnic table and were given a chicken leg that they had to bite with their front teeth while eating with their hands. The other half were served neatly cut pieces of chicken with cutlery. On the second day, the meal conditions were reversed.

More aggressive behavior in children eating with their hands
Second aspect of this research, each day, two camp leaders asked the children to stay inside a circle with a radius of less than 3 meters. The two meal sessions were filmed and evaluated using codes to indicate the level of aggression of these young people. The researchers were actually looking to see if they exhibited atypical behaviors, such as jumping or sudden table exits at tables.
As a result, when children ate chicken straight off the bone, they were twice as likely to disobey adults or leave the table without permission than those served with cut pieces of chicken. Finally, the latter were more likely to jump during meals and to stand on picnic tables.

Aggression is innate in all children
In conclusion, the researchers tell parents who have difficulties with their toddlers what to do: “if you want to have a pleasant, calm and relaxed meal with your children, you still have to cut them off. “
However, to better understand these phenomena of aggression in children, scientists from the University of Montreal (Canada) recently demonstrated that physical aggression in toddlers responds more to genetic factors than to influence of the environment. On the other hand, its persistence obeys other criteria.