Parents and Children Active Together Study

University of Victoria

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Physical Activity

Treatments: Behavioral: Habit formation intervention; Behavioral: Physical activity planning intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03055871

704959

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. Can group differences among behavioural outcomes be explained through a mediation model? Hypothesis: The covariance of the assigned conditions (habit formation, planning + education, education control) on child PA will be explained by parental co-activity habit, and through the use of consistency and cues regulation strategies (i.e., manipulation check). The habit formation condition will not affect parental support intentions or underlying outcome expectations (benefits of PA) for support of child PA because its effect on behavior is to tie initial intentions to behavioural action or to work independent of goals and intentions.
2. Do factors such as quality of life, parental competence, and family functioning improve with increased PA? Hypothesis: Conditions that increase PA will show commensurate increases in these factors.
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 PA via the activities being performed with their children in comparison to the other conditions. No differences in gender or season are hypothesized based on the current research at present

Enrollment: 240 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 3 to 5 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Participants will be at least one parent with at least one child between the ages of 3 and 5 years. Families will reside in greater Victoria, British Columbia. Parents can be single parents or co-parents (i.e. we only require one parent and one child to participate). Families will be included if they have at least one parent who will participate and one child between the ages of 3 and 5 who is not meeting current physical activity guidelines (>=60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity. There will be no delimitations to the sample based on socio-economic or ethnic variables.

Exclusion criteria

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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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240 participants in 3 patient groups

Standard education control group

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group package will consist of Canada's PA guidelines recommending 180 min per week for young children, transitioning to 60 minutes of activity a day for children at five and a breakdown of ways for the parent to help their child achieve this PA (unstructured, endurance, strength, activities) commensurate with this guide. The guide also contains arguments and information about the benefits of PA.

Physical activity planning intervention

Other group

Description:

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 exercise for children where they list physical activities that they have found fun in the past, as well as activities that they would find enjoyable to do as a family.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Physical activity planning intervention

Habit formation intervention

Other group

Description:

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: Habit formation intervention