The aim of this study is to provide a preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of a television program to promote the toothbrushing to kindergarten aged children by motivating and instructing parents in effective ways to increase their child's toothbrushing. The subjects will be children aged 5 years 0 months to 6 years 0 months and their parents. Families will be recruited through the child's school and will be randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups. The experimental conditions will be: a treatment group receiving pretesting, posttesting, and follow up asessments; a treatment group receiving posttesing and follow up asessments; a no treatment group receiving pretesting, posttesting, and follow up assessments; and a no treatment group receiving posttesting and follow up asessments. The parents receiving the experimental treatment will view a 20 minute television program broadcast over cable television. The program will instruct and motivate the parents to use behavior modification techniques of modeling, reinforcement, guided practice, and prompting to increase their child's toothbrushing. The television program will utilize a social modeling format with a story line showing a couple as they try to improve their child's toothbrushing. The no treatment subjects will receive no instructions or interventions. The treatment will be evaluated using repeated assessments of child oral plaque levels and parent self-report of strategies used to encourage child child toothbrushing. In addition, the influence of parent oral health beliefs on parent behavior and child plaque levels will be assessed. Dependent measures will be obtained at pre treatment, post treatment, and 6 months post treatment. The results of this study will provide an assessment of the ability of a minimal contact parent-based intervention delivered in a televised format to improve the oral health behaviors of young children. This format and method of treatment delivery have the potential for use in a wide range of oral health promotion efforts. Therefore, this study will not only evaluate the effectiveness of a specific treatment, but will also provide information about the potential of a social modeling format and television broadcasting for other interventions.
