All in the Family: Promoting Family Function Through Physical Activity (SSHRC-Family)

University of Victoria

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Family Functioning; Physical Activity

Treatments: Behavioral: Education; Behavioral: Self Regulation; Behavioral: PA Support & Family Social Identity

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06098716

435-2023-0493

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this trial is to find out whether adding identity-building and self-regulation training to basic healthy-living education helps families with inactive children (ages 6-12) become more cohesive and physically active. The main question it aims to answer is:

Does the identity + self-regulation + education program improve family cohesion more than (a) self-regulation + education or (b) education alone?

Researchers will compare three groups-identity+self-regulation+education (ID), self-regulation+education (SR), and education-only (ED)-to see which produces the greatest improvements.

Participants will:

1. attend three online workshops at baseline plus two booster sessions at 6-week and 3-month with a project coordinator;
2. complete online questionnaires at baseline, 6-week, 3-month, and 6-month;
3. take part in an exit interview at 6 months.

Full description

The primary objective of this study is to test the efficacy of three family physical activity (PA) interventions on a key family functioning outcome-family cohesion-through increased PA in children and parent-child co-PA. Our study tests three intervention conditions: 1) identity (ID; promotion of a PA parenting identities + self-regulation skills + education), 2) self-regulation (SR; promotion of PA parenting self-regulation skills + education) and 3) education (ED; an education about PA control condition). It is hypothesised that (H1): The ID condition will show significantly larger changes in family cohesion compared to the two other conditions after six-months (primary end-point) and (H2): The SR condition will show significantly larger changes in family cohesion compared to the ED control condition after six-months.

There are three secondary objectives for this study. First, this study aims to assess the impact of the three interventions on the remaining family-functioning dimensions-flexibility and organisation-and on behavioural outcomes (child MVPA and parent-child co-PA) at the 6-month end-point. The ID condition is hypothesized to lead to significantly greater increases in family flexibility, family organization, child MVPA and parent-child co-PA compared to the SR and ED conditions after six months (H3), with the SR condition also expected to outperform the ED condition in these PA outcomes (H4).

Second, this study will also investigate whether group differences in child and parent PA and family functioning outcomes can be explained through a mediation model based on the Multi-Process Action Control (M-PAC) framework. It is hypothesized that changes in child MVPA and parent-child co-PA will mediate the relationship between the intervention groups and family functioning outcomes. These changes in PA behaviors are expected to be predicted by alterations in family social identity and parental PA support identity, which will, in turn, be influenced by parental attitudes, perceptions of control (reflective processes), and behavioral self-regulation (regulatory processes) regarding child PA (H5).

Third, the present study will explore the potential moderating effects of seasonal variation, child sex, dual/single-parent status, parent sex and gender, child age, intervention adherence, and the type and format of PA on the primary outcomes across the three intervention conditions. While no specific hypotheses are pre-set for these factors, it is anticipated that participation in PA may decrease during winter due to weather conditions, and single-parent families might face more barriers to parent-child co-PA, leading to lower participation levels. Additionally, the composition and frequency patterns of child MVPA may influence family functioning outcomes differently across the intervention conditions.

Enrollment: 165 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 6 to 12 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Participants will be at least one parent with at least one child between the ages of 6 and 12 years.

Families (parents and/or guardians and children) residing in Canada. Children that participate in <60 minutes/day of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA).

Exclusion criteria

If child is meeting the current physical activity guidelines >=60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day.

If the participant does not pass the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PARQ) If children's age falls outside the 6-12 year range

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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165 participants in 3 patient groups

Education

Active Comparator group

Description:

The Education condition package will consist of Canada's PA guidelines, information about the benefits of child and adult PA, healthy living and a breakdown of ways for the parent to help their child achieve this PA.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Education

Self Regulation

Experimental group

Description:

The SR condition will receive all of the same education material as the education condition in addition to skill training content (how to plan for family PA) based on our prior family trials. Families will be instructed to plan for "when," "where," "how," and "what" PA will be performed, and to create back-up plans commensurate with the creation of action and coping planning.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Self Regulation

Behavioral: Education

PA Support & Family Social Identity

Experimental group

Description:

The ID condition receives the same education and self-regulation content as the other groups, but with additional activities designed to strengthen (i) parents' PA-support identity and (ii) the family's shared PA social identity. Session 1 involves only the parent(s) and focuses on parental support identity. The content is based on the behaviour change principles of self-identity theory that should lead to increases in self-identity. This session's activities include: 1) bringing awareness to the concept of identity and being a role model, 2) an activity on finding the meaning and value of parental support of child PA, 3) an activity on setting prioritization rules around parental support for child PA in comparison to other parenting responsibilities and values (brainstormed), 4) developing an affirmation for parental support self-talk, and 5) planning ways to visually demonstrate the parental support identity for self-categorization (e.g., on social media, pictures in frames).

Treatment:

Behavioral: PA Support & Family Social Identity

Behavioral: Self Regulation

Behavioral: Education