Parents and Tots Together: A Family-Based Obesity Prevention Intervention

The obesity epidemic has spared no age group, including our youngest children. My and others' formative research shows that ethnically-diverse, low-income parents of young children are enthusiastic about learning general parenting skills, such as discipline strategies, but less interested in nutrition and physical activity. To capitalize on this enthusiasm, I will create and test an intervention that embeds strategies to improve child weight-related behaviors within a general skills parenting program.

The overall goal of this study is to assess Parents and Tots Together (PTT), a family-based intervention to prevent obesity among children age 2 through 5 years. To achieve this goal, my colleagues and I will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) among ethnically diverse, primarily low-income families. Our specific aims are to:

1. Determine the extent to which the intervention, compared with a control condition, results in a smaller age-associated increase in body mass index (BMI) among children after a 3- month intervention and a 9-month follow-up period (primary outcome). 2. Determine the extent to which the intervention, compared with a control condition, results in:

1. Improved parent general parenting behaviors, i.e., increased use of positive discipline strategies. 2. Improved parent feeding practices, i.e., increased responsiveness to child satiety cues. 3. Improved child weight-related behaviors, i.e., increased sleep duration and physical activity, and reduced sugar-sweetened beverage intake and television/video viewing.