This project examines the beliefs and behavior of Navajo mothers regarding control of early childhood food intake and its relationship to childhood obesity. Subjects will include all mothers of children twelve to twenty-four months of age, and the appropriate children, residing in Pinon, Arizona, a small, rural community on the navajo Reservation. Also included for the study will be other caretakers of the children, trading post managers and staff, and health care workers in the community. Ethnographic methods, including semi-structured interview and participant observation, and cognitive anthropological methods, including free listing and pile sorting, will be utilized to elicit information regarding food beliefs. Structured observation will be used to determine the dietary intake of a subsample of the children. Anthropometric measurements at various skinfolds sites will be obtained to determine which of the children are obese. Mothers' food believes will be categorized and related to the children's obesity status. Results will augment the anthropological literature regarding cultural determinants of food behavior, and will be potentially useful to nutrition educators working with the Navajo to prevent childhood obesity and thereby the early onset of Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabests Mellitus.
