NCT05760573

The Ready and Healthy for Kindergarten Study

Ready and Healthy for Kindergarten: A Primary Care Innovation to Promote a 360-degree View of Child Health

• Status: Active Not Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 396 (actual)
• Sponsor: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 4 Years – 6 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to test whether a family wellness program enhances child and parenting outcomes among Latino dual language learners entering Kindergarten and their families. The main questions are: (1) To what extent does the family wellness program enhance home health and learning routines, and (2) To what extent does the family wellness program enhance child literacy, language, and social-emotional outcomes. All participants will be asked to complete surveys and assessments. Researchers will compare two groups: (1) Family wellness program that includes (a) 8-weekly summer sessions, (b) text messages, (c) booster sessions, and (2) usual care plus school supplies and list of resources to see if the family wellness program enhances child and parenting outcomes.

Detailed description

Education is a critical social determinant of health (SDOH). Latino dual language learners face large gaps in school readiness, which perpetuate inequities in academic achievement and subsequent health. Investigators developed an online family wellness program that uses anticipatory guidance on health topics intrinsically important to school readiness (e.g., nutrition, physical activity) to introduce basic language and literacy skills to Latino dual language learners, a fast- growing and particularly high-risk group, and their families. The online family wellness program was developed through a cross-sector partnership between educators and pediatric professionals and consists of parent-child workshops and reminder text messages. The program occurs during the transition into Kindergarten, a critical developmental stage, and uses promising approaches such as group structure, strategic use of technology, and partnerships. The program tightly integrates Bright Futures anticipatory guidance with the Kindergarten curriculum. During pilot testing, the investigators found that the family wellness program was feasible, well attended, and highly acceptable. The investigators now propose testing the effect of the family wellness program on child and parenting outcomes using a rigorous mixed methods and community-engaged approach. The investigators will conduct a randomized controlled trial testing the effects of the family wellness program on child language, literacy, and social-emotional outcomes as well home health and learning routines. The investigators will also conduct a mixed methods process evaluation, which will provide insight into reach and implementation as well as user experience.

Conditions

• Parenting
• Language Development
• Literacy
• Health Behavior

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Family Wellness Program (FWP)	The FWP will consist of the following general format: (1) 8 weekly 60-minute summer workshops; (2) 4 booster workshops throughout the year; and (3) 2-3 outreach text messages per week for 10 months.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-04-15
• Primary completion: 2026-11-30
• Completion: 2026-11-30
• First posted: 2023-03-08
• Last updated: 2025-09-05

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States