Text

theses

Approximately one-third of children and teenagers between the ages of 2 and 19 living in the United States today are considered overweight or obese. Previous research suggests that parents may play a complex role in the development of childhood overweight and obesity, and that parental over-control of child eating and feeding may put a child at particular risk for increased weight. Interventions to reduce parental over-control of eating have been developed, yet a research-practice gap exists in which recruitment of parents for such interventions has proven challenging. Using a previously studied intervention (5 Keys for Happy, Healthy Family Eating) to reduce parental control over child eating as a model obesity prevention program, the current study was comprised of two inter-related sub-studies. The goal of the first was to help bridge the research-practice gap by building community-research partnerships, identifying key recruitment strategies, and interviewing parents and community stakeholders to help elucidate barriers to parent participation in prevention interventions. The goal of the second was to examine the effectiveness of 5 Keys in reducing parental over-control of eating in the sample of participants successfully recruited for the study. In the first study, 11 collaborations were built, 6 sites were particularly active in participant recruitment for 5 Keys, and 30 parents, participants, and community stakeholders were interviewed to identify key themes in parents’ hesitation to engage in prevention initiatives like 5 Keys. The following themes were identified: lack of time; parents’ desire for a “convenient” program; parents’ desire for family-based interventions; and parents’ desire for “short and sweet” solutions. In the second study, 10 overweight parents completed the 5 Keys intervention. By the end of five sessions, four of 10 demonstrated clinically meaningful reductions in parental pressure on child to eat and six of 10 demonstrated clinically meaningful reductions in parental restriction of child eating. Recommendations are made for how to engage with both community partners and parents to further refine 5 Keys and similar obesity prevention interventions and test their effectiveness and acceptability by parents and community members.

ETD_5269

M.S.

Includes bibliographical references

by Jessica Samantha Yu

doi:10.7282/T39S1P48

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.