Abstract
Parents’ stress is independently associated with increased child adiposity, but parents’ stress may also interfere with childhood obesity prevention programs. The disruptions to the family dynamic caused by participating in a behaviour change intervention may exacerbate parent stress and undermine overall intervention efficacy. This study explored how family stress levels were impacted by participation in a home-based obesity prevention intervention. Data were collected from 77 families (56 fathers, 77 mothers) participating in the Guelph Family Health Study (GFHS), a pilot randomized control trial of a home-based obesity prevention intervention. Four measures of stress were investigated: general life stress, parenting distress, depressive symptoms, and household chaos. Multiple linear regression was used to compare the level of stress between the intervention and control groups at post-intervention and 1-year follow-up, adjusted for baseline stress. Analyses for mothers and fathers were stratified, except for household chaos which was measured at the family level. Results indicate no significant differences between intervention and control groups for any stress measure at any time point, indicating a neutral effect of the GFHS intervention on family stress. Future work should investigate the components of family-based intervention protocols that make participation minimally burdensome and consider embedding specific stress-reduction messaging to promote family health and wellbeing.
Highlights
Childhood overweight and obesity are associated with several health concerns such as increased risk of chronic illnesses like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and reduced overall lifespan, as well as increased risk of being bullied and developing disordered eating habits due to societal bias against those in larger bodies [1,2,3,4]
Our results suggest that family stress levels were not different when comparing intervention to control families, despite evidence that behavioural changes did occur among both parents and children [27,36,37]
The Guelph Family Health Study (GFHS) has several behaviour change goals aimed at preventing childhood obesity; reducing family stress levels was not among the primary intentions of the program
Summary
Childhood overweight and obesity are associated with several health concerns such as increased risk of chronic illnesses like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and reduced overall lifespan, as well as increased risk of being bullied and developing disordered eating habits due to societal bias against those in larger bodies [1,2,3,4]. There appears to be a critical window of development in early childhood where lifelong health behaviour patterns are largely established [5,6]. This presents an especially advantageous target for programs to focus on prevention in early life to maximize the preventative benefit of healthful behavioural patterns. Nutrients 2020, 12, 1835 obesity prevention programs [7,8,9,10] These family-based behaviour change interventions typically focus on changing parenting practices and/or family behaviours such as eating meals as a family or group physical activities. The competing demands on parents’ time and resources are numerous and dynamic, making it especially complex to effectively engage them in childhood obesity prevention programs
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