Parents and Tots Together: A Family-Based Intervention to Promote Healthy Eating and Activity Behaviors Among Preschool Children

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:

3. Improved parent general parenting behaviors, i.e., increased use of positive discipline strategies.

4. Improved parent feeding practices, i.e., increased responsiveness to child satiety cues.

5. Improved child weight-related behaviors, i.e., increased sleep duration and physical activity, and reduced sugar-sweetened beverage intake and television/video viewing.