Promoting Food Acceptance Through Positive Parenting: the Play and Grow Study

NCT06074926 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: STUDY00007145
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 50
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Approximately one half of adults and one-fifth of children have obesity, including 14% of 2-5-year-olds. Early obesity prevention is essential as children who are overweight by age 5 are at increased risk for later obesity. Dietary intake is inextricably linked to weight status, and the majority of young children fail to meet intake recommendations, with socioeconomically disadvantaged and racial/ethnic minority children at increased risk of poor diet quality. However, children's liking of healthier foods predicts their intake, and children can learn to like healthier foods via experience. The current study brings together evidence from the parenting and learning literatures to: 1) examine effects of a novel learning strategy leveraging positive parent-child interactions on 3-5-year-old children's vegetable acceptance and dietary intake, as well as to explore 2) individual differences in learning strategy effects.

Conditions

Obesity, Childhood; Overweight, Childhood; Overnutrition; Pediatric Obesity; Eating, Healthy

Keywords

Repeated Exposure; Associative Conditioning; Positive Parenting; Food Acceptance; Diet Quality

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Child's target vegetable preference

  Ranked ordered preference overall (range 1-7, 7 = least preferred) and relative to control vegetable

  Week 5 (post-test)

• Child's target vegetable liking

  Child-reported liking (3-point visual face scale (e.g., yummy, yucky, just OK) adapted from Birch and colleagues) overall and relative to control vegetable

  Week 5 (post-test)

• Child's willingness to taste target vegetable

  Observed by study staff, defined as child placing vegetable in his/her mouth (i.e., eating the vegetable or spitting it out)

  Week 5 (post-test)

• Child target vegetable ad libitum consumption

  10-minute period where child can eat as much or as little of provided foods (7 study vegetables + a neutral snack food (i.e., cracker)). Consumption will be measured via plate waste and overall consumption (grams) of the target vegetable, as well as consumption relative to the a) control vegetable and b) neutral snack will be calculated

  Week 5 (post-test)

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Reported general parenting

  Week 5 (post-test)

• Observed general parenting

  Week 5 (post-test)

• Observed child affect/behavior

  Week 5 (post-test)

Other Outcomes (2)

• Frequency of vegetables consumed by child (past week)

  Week 4 (intervention period)

• Variety of vegetables consumed by child (past week)

  Week 4 (intervention period)

Study Arms (2)

Group 1 - Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will attend two laboratory visits and complete a 3-week intervention, which consists of interactive parent-child activities (\~45 min of interactive activities/week) that pair tasting an assigned target vegetable with positive parent-child interactions. Positive interactions will be promoted via positive parenting prompts embedded in the activity instructions (e.g., prompts promoting child-directed play).

Behavioral: Associative Conditioning

Group 2 - Control

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will attend the same two laboratory visits and complete a 3-week intervention, which consists of only individual taste exposures to their target vegetable.

Behavioral: Repeated Exposure

Interventions

Associative Conditioning BEHAVIORAL

There will be 3 planned activities per week (9 total) within play kits provided to families. Children will first taste their assigned target vegetable and then complete an activity with their parent following provided instructions. Activity instructions will include positive parenting skills adapted from evidence-based parenting programs (i.e., Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and Triple-P) designed to promote positive parent-child interactions.

Group 1 - Intervention

Repeated Exposure BEHAVIORAL

There will be 3 planned exposures per week (9 total). Exposures will include only individual tastes of the child's assigned target vegetable.

Group 2 - Control

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 3 Years - 5 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Child is 3-5 years old
• Parent/ guardian is 18 years of age or older
• Child is not diagnosed with a serious physical or mental health condition that precludes safe participation
• Parent and child are English speaking

You may not qualify if:

• The child is outside the age range of 3-5 years
• Child is diagnosed with a serious physical or mental health condition that precludes participation
• Parent/ guardian is less than 18 years of age

Sponsors & Collaborators

• State University of New York at Buffalo: lead

Study Sites (1)

State University of New York at Buffalo

Buffalo, New York, 14214, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Pediatric Obesity; Overnutrition

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Obesity; Overweight; Nutrition Disorders; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Body Weight; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, PhD

  State University of New York at Buffalo

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Masking Details: Membership in the "intervention" versus "control" group will not be discussed as such, but participants will know whether they receive the repeated exposure (control group) or associative conditioning (intervention group) activities.
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor of Pediatrics

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 3, 2023
• First Posted: October 10, 2023
• Study Start: October 30, 2023
• Primary Completion: August 1, 2024
• Study Completion: August 1, 2024
• Last Updated: August 27, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)