Play With Me: The Development of a Positive Parenting Intervention to Promote Healthy Eating Among Young Children

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Health, Growth, Injury

Abstract

The relative reinforcing value (RRV) of food measures how hard individuals will work for food versus an alternative activity and has been associated with weight status in infants, children, and adults. There is growing interest in the promotion of alternative reinforcers, or rewarding activities that could take the place of eating, which may reduce the RRV of food and decrease excess intake (Kong & Epstein, 2016). Young children find positive parent-child interactions rewarding, suggesting that positive parent-child activities may be a promising alternative reinforcer to food. The rapid development in self-regulation, autonomy, and eating habits during early childhood make this an important time to intervene for maximum impact (Gottlieb, 2007). A robust body of literature suggests that parenting interventions can increase positive parenting practices and promote social-emotional development. However, no prior studies have applied the extant research on positive parenting to the RRV of food. We aimed to develop an intervention for families of 4-to-5-year-old children at risk for obesity that promotes positive parent-child interactions as an alternative reinforcer through the provision of structured parent-child activities and online parent training. The Play With Me intervention is hypothesized to decrease motivation to eat relative to parent-child interaction as assessed by a laboratory RRV task that measures how hard children will work for food versus time spent interacting with their parent. The proposed presentation will focus on the development of this intervention in two phases: 1) pilot testing of a sample intervention activity and measures, and 2) expansion of intervention content. Phase 1: A pilot study was conducted to examine changes in children’s RRV of food following a one-week intervention. Twelve 4-to-5-year-old children whose families received a sample intervention activity promoting positive parenting during shared book reading demonstrated decreased RRV of food from baseline to follow-up (d = 0.64), suggesting that positive parent-child interactions may be a promising alternative reinforcer. Phase 2: A literature search was conducted to identify potential parenting interventions that could serve as an organizing framework within which our parent-child activities could be embedded. TripleP Online (Sanders et al., 2014) was selected due to its strong evidence base and online format. A four-week intervention curriculum was developed by our team to correspond to the TripleP content. Parents watch a brief TripleP video on a parenting skill each week and receive 12 activity boxes, with instructions to select one box of activities to do each week: reading activities, arts and crafts, or nature walks and active games. Each box includes an instruction guide with suggestions for using the weekly parenting skill during the activities (Table 1). The proposed presentation will include intervention content and preliminary feasibility data from an ongoing Randomized Controlled Trial examining the impacts of the intervention versus a waitlist control on the RRV of food versus parent-child interaction in 30 families. This research aims to leverage the rich history of parenting interventions in developmental psychology to impact a novel outcome, the RRV of food, and reduce risk for obesity by promoting healthy choices.

Authors

• Hope White, State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo)
  Presenting Author

• Rina D. Eiden, The Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Malena Savell, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leonard Epstein, State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) (
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gregory Fabiano, Florida International University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kai Ling Kong, State University of New York, Buffalo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sara Tauriello, State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo)
  Non-Presenting Author