Food Safety Knowledge of Native American Families with Young Children in Nebraska

Abstract

Objective: Determine whether child body image (BI) is enhanced through a parent-centered childhood obesity prevention curriculum in which BI is addressed along with nutrition, physical activity, and parenting/family communication. Theory, Prior Research, Rationale: Parent-only interventions report greater reductions in childhood overweight than family-based interventions, but have not assessed child BI. Taking a Social Cognitive approach, 4Health provides parent skills training to promote child health. Study Design, Setting, Participants, and Intervention: 4-H parent-child dyads assigned to either of two groups: 1) 4-Health, a parent-only 8-month, 10-session educational (experimental) program taught by Extension agents (N1⁄476 dyads) or 2) Healthy Living Information (control) program providing similar information by mail (N1⁄474 dyads). Outcome, Measures and Analysis: Children only attended assessments where they completed the Child Body Image Scale (BD), Body Esteem Scale (BE), Socio-cultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire, and self-described their current weight, weight change attempts, and fasting. Logistic regression identified three variables that differentiated between groups (p < 0.20). Separate between-group ANCOVAs for PrePost change in these three variables, with child age and gender as covariates. Results: A significant group difference in BD with experimental group children decreasing and controls increasing BD (p1⁄40.015). Mean BE increased PrePost among experimental children and decreased among controls, although this difference was not significant (p1⁄4.097). Experimental children described their weight as decreased PrePost, while Control children described their weight as increased (p1⁄4.019). Conclusions and Implications: The 4-Health program yielded greater changes in selected child BI variables than the control program, suggesting BI can be enhanced by a parent-centered child obesity prevention. Funding: USDA.