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theses

Obesity, as a chronic disease and a risk factor for many serious diseases, is a highly prevalent public health problem in the United States. Although there were no significant changes in childhood obesity prevalence, adults showed an increasing trend in the past decade. However, childhood obesity can be a risk factor for adult obesity as behavior patterns and eating preferences can track across childhood and become lifelong habits that are resistant to change. Thus, early interventions are necessary and potentially more effective to prevent excessive weight gain. HomeStyles, as a health promotion intervention program, targets parents of preschoolers to help shape their home environment and weight-related behaviors. To further investigate study outcome and discover potential new strategies for future health education programs, we evaluated whether generational differences exist in HomeStyles participants in terms of weight-related parenting. Study participants were categorized into Generation X (born in 1965-1981) and Millennials (born in 1982-1999) for comparison. Based on the analyses of 333 participants (164 as Generation X, and 169 as Millennials), we discovered a few differences in socio-demographic, behavioral and cognitive aspects of the two generations. Generation X participants had higher education levels, were more likely to have a paid employment, and more affluent as well as less food insecure than Millennial participants. Millennial participants reported higher outcome expectations from eating healthy and exercising than Generation X participants did, but the higher cognitive level is not reflected in better weight-related behaviors. Moreover, we evaluated participants remained versus dropped out to seek potential factors that affect their decision making. For Millennial participants, they tend to stay for follow-up studies if their spouse or partner shared more financial responsibilities of supporting the family, while this connection was not discovered for Generation X. For those who dropped out of the study, Generation X participants were more likely to report depressive symptoms than Millennials. Thus, we might take the effect of mood status on retention efforts into consideration for future health education programs. Although we discovered a few differences between Generation X and Millennials participating HomeStyles, we attribute the difference as the result of being in different life stages instead of generation specific culture. In our conclusion, Generation X and Millennial adults were more similar than different as parents of preschoolers in the scenario of weight-related parenting. Tailored health intervention programs targeting different generations might not be warranted.

ETD_9058

M.S.

Includes bibliographical references

by Ruiying Xiong

doi:10.7282/t3-ybvr-8e41

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.