Enhancing Self Regulation as a Strategy for Obesity Prevention in Head Start Preschoolers

University of Michigan

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Parents of Preschoolers Series; Behavioral: Incredible Years Series

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01398358

2010-04785

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this integrated project targeting the Childhood Obesity Prevention Challenge Area is to reduce the prevalence of obesity among children attending Head Start in Michigan. The proposed intervention program is based on Social Cognitive theory and the premise that enhancing children's capacity for emotional and behavioral self-regulation is a key component of effective obesity prevention. A randomized controlled trial design is proposed to evaluate, among 600 Head Start children and their parents, the effectiveness of 2 approaches to obesity prevention: (1) the Parents of Preschoolers Prevention Series (POPS), a curriculum delivered to preschoolers and their parents focused on obesity-related health behaviors; and (2) POPS in combination with the Incredible Years Series (IYS), an evidence-based program designed to improve preschoolers' emotional and behavioral self-regulation. The research objective is to test the hypotheses that: (1) POPS, compared to Usual Head Start exposure, will lead to greater improvements in obesity-related health behaviors and adiposity indices; and (2) POPS + IYS will lead to the greatest improvements in obesity-related health behaviors and adiposity indices, and this effect will be mediated by improved self-regulation. The extension objective is to evaluate the feasibility, fidelity, and educational effectiveness of the POPS and POPS + IYS interventions, as delivered by paraprofessionals and educators within Extension and Head Start. The education objective is to provide Extension and Head Start staff non-formal training and educational curricula which can be widely disseminated. The long-term goal of this project is disseminate a novel and effective approach to obesity prevention in preschoolers.

Enrollment: 697 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 2 to 6 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• child is enrolled in Head Start

Exclusion criteria

• Significant developmental disabilities that would preclude participation
• Child is a foster child
• Parent is non-English speaking

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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697 participants in 3 patient groups

Usual Head Start Exposure

No Intervention group

Description:

Children will attend their usual Head Start classroom and receive the usual educational interventions provided in that classroom.

Parents of Preschoolers Series (POPS)

Experimental group

Description:

Children attend Head Start preschool. Within the classroom, they receive a series of lessons about nutrition and obesity prevention delivered by an Extension Educator in collaboration with the classroom teacher. Parents are invited to attend a series of classes about nutrition and obesity prevention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Parents of Preschoolers Series

POPS + Incredible Years Series (IYS)

Experimental group

Description:

Children attend Head Start preschool. Within the classroom, they receive a series of lessons about nutrition and obesity prevention delivered by an Extension Educator in collaboration with the classroom teacher. Parents are invited to attend a series of classes about nutrition and obesity prevention. In the classroom, children also receive a series of lessons about emotional and behavioral self-regulation delivered by a trained mental health specialist. The parents also are invited to classes about child behavioral and emotional self-regulation delivered by a mental health specialist.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Incredible Years Series

Behavioral: Parents of Preschoolers Series