The purpose of this study is to assess whether providing a parent-only group program before providing a parent and child group program works better than the parent and child group program alone.
The goal of this project is to determine if an adult intervention followed by a family-based program (iAmHealthy Parents First) will result in a larger percentage of weight loss in parents and children compared to solely a family-based program (iAmHealthy). Furthermore, the investigators aim to discover if administering iAmHealthy Parents First will improve dietary intake, physical activity, and weight-related quality of life among parents and children when compared to iAmHealthy. Parent/child dyads will be recruited from rural elementary schools, medical clinics, and organizations across Kansas and neighboring states.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
480
iAmHealthy Parents first is a 3-month adult obesity treatment program targeting the unique needs of adults with school-age children. Following the iAmHealthy Parents First program, these dyads will take part in a 6-month family-based healthy lifestyles program.
The iAmHealthy group will receive newsletters for three months. Following this period, these dyads will take part in a 6-month family-based healthy lifestyles program.
University of Kansas Medical Center
Kansas City, Kansas, United States
Percent weight change in parents and BMIz (BMI z-score) in children
Parents and children will measure body weight on a study-provided digital scale following instructions provided by study team.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months, 9 months
Mediator: Attendance
Group and individual session attendance (percent of sessions) will be tracked on REDCap, a secure, web-based application designed exclusively to support data capture for research studies.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months, 9 months
Mediator: Reciprocal modeling
Reciprocal influence (parent response as mediator for child; child response as mediator for parent) will be operationalized as adult or child weight loss.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months, 9 months
Moderator: Family functioning
Family functioning will be measured using the Family Assessment Device (FAD). This is the gold-standard measure of structural, organizational, and transactional characteristics of families including general family functioning (core scale of interest) and 6 additional subscales: affective involvement, affective responsiveness, behavioral control, communication, problem solving, and roles. This questionnaire will be completed by adults. The FAD is scored by adding responses of each scale (1 - 4) and dividing by the number of items in each scale (between 6 - 12). The higher the overall score, the worse the level of family function.
Time frame: Baseline, 3 months, 9 months
Moderators: Genetic casual attributions
Genetic casual attributions will be measured using a a 2-item Likert scale that assesses perceived genetic role for weight status and potential for weight loss. This will be completed by adults. Those who endorse completely or mostly for the role of genes in weight loss will be characterized as having "high genetic attribution" for weight status.
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Time frame: Baseline, 3 months, 9 months