Theory-Based Parenting Intervention for Preschool Children's Health Behaviors

Background Early childhood is a critical developmental period for establishing long-term health habits. Preschool children have limited capacity for self-regulation and depend heavily on parental guidance to adopt and maintain health behaviors. Therefore, interventions targeting parents may be particularly effective in promoting child health behaviors during this stage.

Previous research has primarily focused on motivational and self-regulatory determinants of parental support behaviors. However, intention-based models often fail to account for automatic processes, such as habit formation, which may contribute to the intention-behavior gap. To address this limitation, the present study integrates motivational, volitional, and automatic processes into a integrated social cognitive framework to better explain parental decision-making in supporting children's health behaviors.

Study Objectives and Hypotheses The primary objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of a 4-week theory-based intervention targeting parental psychological determinants and behavioral outcomes.

It is hypothesized that:

1. Parents in the intervention group will demonstrate greater improvements in motivational variables (e.g., attitudes, perceived norms, self-efficacy), volitional variables (e.g., action planning, coping planning, action control), and habit compared to the waitlist control group. 2. Parents in the intervention group will report greater increases in supporting behaviors, and their children will show greater improvements in health behaviors compared to the waitlist control group. 3. Changes in motivational, volitional, and automatic variables will mediate the relationship between group assignment and behavioral outcomes.

Study Design This study employs a longitudinal two-arm randomized controlled trial design. Participants are randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a waitlist control group.

Assessments are conducted at baseline (T1), post-intervention (T2), and one-month follow-up (T3). The intervention group also provides feedback regarding program experience.

The intervention targets multiple child health behaviors, including physical activity, screen time, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, and handwashing.

Intervention Overview The intervention consists of eight sessions delivered over four weeks via a mobile program. Each session lasts approximately 20-30 minutes and includes multimedia materials and interactive exercises.

Weeks 1-2 focus on motivational processes (attitudes, perceived norms, self-efficacy, and social support).

Week 3 focuses on volitional processes (action planning, coping planning, and action control).

Week 4 focuses on habit formation, cue-based strategies, and multiple health behaviors.

Behavior change techniques include goal setting, action planning, self-monitoring, prompts/cues, modeling, Information about health consequences, social support and reward.

Statistical Analysis Plan Intervention effects will be examined using 2 (group) × 3 (time) repeated-measures analyses of variance. Significant interaction effects will be followed by simple effects analyses.

To examine mediation, social cognitive variables will be tested as mediators. Group assignment (intervention = 1, control = 0) will serve as the independent variable, and parental support and child health behaviors will serve as dependent variables. Separate mediation analyses will be conducted for each mediator.

• Parental Attitude Toward Supporting Child Health Behaviors [Срок оценки: Baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 1-month follow-up]
• Subjective Norm Toward Supporting Child Health Behaviors [Срок оценки: Baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 1-month follow-up]
• Parental Self-Efficacy for Supporting Child Health Behaviors [Срок оценки: Baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 1-month follow-up]
• Perceived Social Norm Supporting Child Health Behaviors [Срок оценки: Baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 1-month follow-up]
• Social Support for Parental Support Behaviors [Срок оценки: Baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 1-month follow-up]
• Behavioral Intention to Support Child Health Behaviors [Срок оценки: Baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 1-month follow-up]
• Action Planning for Supporting Child Health Behaviors [Срок оценки: Baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 1-month follow-up]
• Coping Planning for Supporting Child Health Behaviors [Срок оценки: Baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 1-month follow-up]
• Action Control for Supporting Child Health Behaviors [Срок оценки: Baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 1-month follow-up]
• Behavioral Automaticity of Parental Support [Срок оценки: Baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 1-month follow-up]