In order to curb the growing rate of childhood overweight and obesity in the U.S., prevention behaviors need to be initiated during early childhood. As gatekeepers to their children's health, parents play a crucial role in helping achieve this early prevention goal. [As part of their """"""""Obesity Education Campaign"""""""" (OEC), State of the Art, Inc. proposes the development of a multimedia resource for parents and significant caregivers of children ages 3-5 that addresses this need by building knowledge, motivation, self-efficacy, and parenting and self- management skills around implementing a family-centered plan for promoting health and preventing childhood overweight/obesity. OEC materials, including a DVD, parent booklet, and facilitator's guide, will be packaged for use by parents/significant caregivers of children ages 3-5 and by education and healthcare professionals who work with these parents and families.] [OEC strives to prevent childhood overweight and obesity by helping parents learn about and initiate nutrition and physical activity behaviors for their young children. To accomplish this objective, OEC materials will innovatively apply a cluster of three proven behavior change theories (Self-Management, Social Cognitive, and proven core parenting principles i.e. contingency management, praise and reinforcement, parent to child modeling, and consistency) with the following aims: 1) to increase parental knowledge around nutrition, physical activity, and screen time 2) to teach parents strategies for achieving success in health behavior change including the self- management skills of setting realistic goals, starting with small changes and creating progressive, short- term action plans 3) to motivate parents to adopt changes in these areas by showing profiles of real families modeling how to recognize an area for improvement and successfully navigate obstacles to change behavior. 4) to prevent increase in child BMI] In Phase II, OEC materials will be produced based on research and the revised creative plans. Additionally, qualitative and quantitative evaluations will be conducted. Prototype materials will be revised based on feedback from advisors and target audiences. Focus groups with target audiences (parents and professionals who work with parents) will take place during the development stage to help ensure that OEC materials match the values and needs of these audiences. Groups will be conducted by trained moderators using standard focus group methods (Krueger, 1998) and cross-group comparisons will be made between parent groups. A content review by project advisors will supplement focus groups, and highlight any additional areas in need of revision. [After revision and production of the final OEC materials, a quantitative evaluation will measure their effectiveness in educating parents in the intervention group about childhood overweight/obesity prevention by measuring its impact in building motivation, self-efficacy, and adoption of preventive health behaviors while tracking parent reported BMI of the child from baseline to 90-days post intervention as compared to control group participants. Using a short-term longitudinal design, parents of children ages 3-5 will be interviewed at baseline and about 1-, 3-months. A paired comparison of individual participant scores can be made. This will determine if the observed movement across all participants is statistically significant and if the difference in observed movement between the intervention and control groups is statistically significant.] Public Health Relevance: Not a day goes by without nationally recognized health organizations in the news media highlighting overweight and obesity as a cause for grave concern for people of all ages, races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. As the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity continues to escalate, the health consequences associated with this issue place a significant burden on the physical and emotional well being of individuals, families, and society as a whole. By promoting prevention in early childhood, OEC research and resources have the potential to help parents initiate positive health behaviors in early development that can be sustained throughout the life course;and, thereby reduce the prevalence of childhood overweight/obesity, related comorbidities, and their associated healthcare costs.
