Project F-EAT (Families and Eating and Activity in Teens) will explore how the familial and home environment of adolescents is related to adolescent weight-related outcomes. More specifically, Project F-EAT will collect parental reports of the food and physical activity environments and weight culture (e.g. dieting and weight norms) within the context of the home. These parental reports will be linked to adolescents'weight status, body image, weight control practices, dietary intake, and physical activity, which are being collected as part of another study. Parents or other caregivers of 2400 ethnically and socio-economically diverse adolescents from Minneapolis/St. Paul will be surveyed by mail. Surveys will be conducted in English, Spanish, and Hmong in accordance with the needs of the targeted population. To enhance response rates and ensure the inclusion of parents who can not read (particularly from the Hmong population), a telephone survey option will be offered to parents who do not respond the mailed survey after several attempts. Efforts will be made to collect data from both parents thus expanding upon the familial literature, which to date has focused primarily on mothers. Project F-EAT will build upon earlier study waves of Projects EAT (I and II) and be seamlessly integrated with the currently funded Project EAT-III study, which is collecting survey and anthropometric data from adolescents and environmental data on peer, school, and neighborhood characteristics. Project F-EAT will complement this ecological perspective by providing parental data on the familial and home environment. Few studies have taken a multi-level approach simultaneously examining multiple layers of influences on weight status, dietary intake, physical activity, body image, and weight control behaviors in adolescents. A rich understanding of how variables from individual contexts and different levels of the environment (family, peer, school, and neighborhood) interact to influence different aspects of weight-related health is critical to the development of effective multi-level interventions for young people. Project F-EAT will combine synergistically with Project EAT-III to produce far more knowledge than would be possible with either study on its own. Project F-EAT will provide a knowledge base at a time when families, health providers, schools, and communities are struggling with how best to help adolescents from diverse backgrounds make healthy eating and physical activity choices, avoid unhealthy weight control practices, and prevent both eating disorders and obesity.

Public Health Relevance

Project F-EAT (Families and Eating and Activity in Teens) Obesity and other weight-related problems among adolescents are of major public health concern. The aim of the proposed study is to explore how the familial and home environment of adolescents is related to adolescent weight status, body image, weight control practices, dietary intake, and physical activity. Information to be gained from Project F-EAT (Families and Eating and Activity in Teens) will inform the development of interventions to promote the weight-related health of young people.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL093247-02
Application #
7911777
Study Section
Community Influences on Health Behavior (CIHB)
Program Officer
Pratt, Charlotte
Project Start
2009-08-15
Project End
2012-07-31
Budget Start
2010-08-01
Budget End
2012-07-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$736,964
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
555917996
City
Minneapolis
State
MN
Country
United States
Zip Code
55455
Didericksen, Katharine Wickel; Berge, Jerica M; Hannan, Peter J et al. (2018) Mother-father-adolescent triadic concordance and discordance on home environment factors and adolescent disordered eating behaviors. Fam Syst Health 36:338-346
Rodgers, Rachel F; Watts, Allison W; Austin, S Bryn et al. (2017) Disordered eating in ethnic minority adolescents with overweight. Int J Eat Disord 50:665-671
Berge, Jerica M; Meyer, Craig; MacLehose, Richard F et al. (2016) Do Parents Treat Siblings Similarly or Differently with Regard to Feeding Practices, Weight-Related Conversations, and Support for Physical Activity? An Exploratory Analysis. Child Obes 12:87-93
Loth, Katie A; MacLehose, Richard F; Larson, Nicole et al. (2016) Food availability, modeling and restriction: How are these different aspects of the family eating environment related to adolescent dietary intake? Appetite 96:80-86
Berge, Jerica M; MacLehose, Richard F; Meyer, Craig et al. (2016) He Said, She Said: Examining Parental Concordance on Home Environment Factors and Adolescent Health Behaviors and Weight Status. J Acad Nutr Diet 116:46-60
Berge, Jerica M; Meyer, Craig; MacLehose, Richard F et al. (2015) All in the family: correlations between parents' and adolescent siblings' weight and weight-related behaviors. Obesity (Silver Spring) 23:833-9
Bauer, Katherine W; MacLehose, Rich; Loth, Katie A et al. (2015) Eating- and weight-related parenting of adolescents in the context of food insecurity. J Acad Nutr Diet 115:1408-16
Berge, Jerica M; MacLehose, Richard F; Loth, Katie A et al. (2015) Parent-adolescent conversations about eating, physical activity and weight: prevalence across sociodemographic characteristics and associations with adolescent weight and weight-related behaviors. J Behav Med 38:122-35
Larson, Nicole; Eisenberg, Marla E; Berge, Jerica M et al. (2015) Ethnic/racial disparities in adolescents' home food environments and linkages to dietary intake and weight status. Eat Behav 16:43-6
Goldschmidt, Andrea B; Loth, Katie A; MacLehose, Richard F et al. (2015) Overeating with and without loss of control: Associations with weight status, weight-related characteristics, and psychosocial health. Int J Eat Disord 48:1150-7

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