Family Habit Physical Activity Study

University of Victoria

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Physical Activity

Treatments: Behavioral: Family Physical Activity Habit Formation; Behavioral: Family Physical Activity Planning

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03145688

35941 51350

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to examine physical activity habit formation in parents and if this can increase moderate to vigorous physical activity behavior in their children over six months. The Primary Research Question is:

Does the habit formation condition result in increased moderate-vigorous intensity physical activity of the child compared to the control (education) and education + planning conditions at six months? Hypothesis: Child physical activity will be higher for the habit formation condition in comparison to the more standard physical activity education and planning conditions at six months.

Full description

Secondary Research Questions

1. Does the habit formation condition improve child health-related quality of life, and health-related fitness outcomes compared to the control and planning conditions at six months? Hypothesis: Child health-related fitness and quality of life will be higher for the habit formation condition in comparison to the control and planning conditions.
2. Can group differences among behavioural, and health-related fitness outcomes be explained through a mediation model? Hypothesis: The covariance of the assigned conditions (habit formation, planning + education, education control) on child physical activity will be explained by parental support habit, and through the use of consistency and cues regulation strategies (i.e., manipulation check). In turn, the covariance between support habit and health-related outcomes will be explained by physical activity among conditions. The habit formation condition will not affect parental support intentions or underlying outcome expectations (benefits of physical activity) for support of child physical activity because its effect on behavior is to tie initial intentions to behavioural action or to work independent of goals and intentions.
3. Is there an intergenerational, seasonal, or gender difference across primary outcomes by assigned condition? Hypothesis: Parents in the habit formation condition will show higher physical activity via some activities being performed with their children in comparison to the other conditions. No differences in gender or season are hypothesized but these are exploratory research questions because there is limited research at present [28] to make any definitive statement.

Enrollment: 240 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 6 to 12 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• parents with children between the ages of 6 and 12 years
• self-report low family physical activity
• target child is not meeting Canada's Physical Activity guidelines

Exclusion criteria

• participant is unsafe to participate in physical activity as determined by answers to the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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240 participants in 3 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group package will consist of the Canadian 24 Hour Movement Guidelines recommending 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day for children. The guide also contains arguments \& information about the benefits of physical activity.

Family physical activity Planning

Experimental group

Description:

Behavoural: Family Physical Activity Planning. The physical activity planning intervention condition will receive the same guidelines as the standard education control group but will also be provided with family physical activity planning material. This material will include workbook on how to plan for family physical activity; brainstorming exercises for parents \& children where they list physical activities that they have found fun in the past, as well as some new activities they would like to try \& skill training content to help with goal setting \& tracking of physical activity.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Family Physical Activity Planning

Family Physical Activity Habit Formation

Experimental group

Description:

Behavioural: Family Physical Activity Habit formation. The Habit formation intervention condition will receive the same content as the education control condition and the physical activity planning condition but with additional material on creating physical activity support habits. The material includes a brief discussion of what habits are with some very straightforward examples such as preparing for sleep routines or initiating to drive a car to work. A key component of the habit section will be based on planning for context-dependent repetition, with pointers on how to maintain repetition as habit forms.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Family Physical Activity Habit Formation