Nurturing Needs Study: Parenting Food Motivated Children
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Measurement.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Parenting, Eating Behavior, Diet, Healthy, Pediatric Obesity. Basic parameters: 4 years — 5 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Official title
Deconstructing Food Parenting Approaches to Obesity Prevention for the Highly Food Motivated Child
Overview
High food motivation among children is trait-like and increases risks of unhealthy dietary intake and obesity. Scientific knowledge of how parenting can best support healthy eating habits and growth among children who are predisposed to overeating is surprisingly limited. This investigation will identify supportive food parenting approaches for obesity prevention that address the needs of highly food motivated children.
Detailed description
High levels of food motivation among young children are heritable, track over time, and associated with elevated risks of unhealthy eating and obesity. Despite significant growth of family-based obesity prevention efforts, the evidence base is remarkably scant on parenting highly food motivated children to prevent obesity and poor dietary outcomes. The goal of this investigation is to generate a robust basic science evidence for parenting highly food motivated children to prevent excessive dietary intakes and body mass index (BMI) gains during the preschool years. Using a prospective cohort design, this investigation follow 205 caregiver/child dyads over 18 months as children transition from preschool to elementary school, when significant numbers of children begin to experience problems of poor diet quality and obesity. Children with varying food motivation will be recruited to understand whether highly food motivated children have different needs than other children. A multi-method approach will use state-of-the-art measures, including ecological momentary assessment, to comprehensively investigate the amount, types, and consistency of food parenting practices (i.e., specific, goal-oriented behaviors) needed to prevent food motivated behaviors, excessive dietary intake, and BMI gains in children. Specifically, the role of structure (i.e., theoretically supportive) and its differentiation from more coercive types of food parenting control will be comprehensively characterized.
Interventions
- Other Measurement
The only interventions are at the measurement level and consist of two behavioral protocols designed to assess children's eating behavior, where food stimuli are provided and children's behavioral responses are recorded.
Primary outcome measures
- Excessive dietary intakes [Time frame: Baseline, 18 months]
- BMI change [Time frame: Baseline, 18 months]
Secondary outcome measures (1)
- Observed food motivated behaviors [Time frame: Baseline, 18 months]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Child ages 4 or 5 years at baseline;
- Parent/ primary caregiver with legal representation (having 50% or more custody of child);
- Parent/primary caregiver reporting primary responsibility for child feeding outside of childcare (being with child when they are eating at least two times daily);
- Caregiver with a cell phone that can be used to send and receive text messages. If there is more than one age-eligible child in the family, we will ask the caregiver to pick the index child.
Exclusion criteria
- Parent/primary caregiver <18 years of age;
- Child history of major food allergies (e.g., peanuts);
- Child medication use (e.g., insulin), developmental disability (e.g., autism) or medical condition(s) (e.g., diabetes) known to affect food intake and growth;
- Foster child.
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- N/A
- Model
- Single group
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Other
Study locations
United States · 2 centers
- Temple University - Center for Obesity Research and Education — Philadelphia
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center — Houston
Publications
- Fisher JO, Hughes SO, Miller AL, Horodynski MA, Brophy-Herb HE, Contreras DA, Kaciroti N, Peterson KE, Rosenblum KL, Appugliese D, Lumeng JC. Characteristics of eating behavior profiles among preschoolers with low-income backgrounds: a person-centered analysis. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2022 Jul 23;19(1):91. doi: 10.1186/s12966-022-01323-y. PMID 35870976
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06111040 · R01DK132642 · 30291