NCT06074926

Promoting Food Acceptance Through Positive Parenting: the Play and Grow Study

Promoting Healthier Food Acceptance and Intake Among Young Children Using a Novel Positive Parent-Child Interaction Strategy

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 50 (actual)
• Sponsor: State University of New York at Buffalo · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 3 Years – 5 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Approximately one half of adults and one-fifth of children have obesity, including 14% of 2-5-year-olds. Early obesity prevention is essential as children who are overweight by age 5 are at increased risk for later obesity. Dietary intake is inextricably linked to weight status, and the majority of young children fail to meet intake recommendations, with socioeconomically disadvantaged and racial/ethnic minority children at increased risk of poor diet quality. However, children's liking of healthier foods predicts their intake, and children can learn to like healthier foods via experience. The current study brings together evidence from the parenting and learning literatures to: 1) examine effects of a novel learning strategy leveraging positive parent-child interactions on 3-5-year-old children's vegetable acceptance and dietary intake, as well as to explore 2) individual differences in learning strategy effects.

Detailed description

Repeated exposure, in which children taste a target food across several occasions, is an effective strategy for increasing children's acceptance and intake of healthier foods. An alternative strategy that may be preferable for those less likely to try unfamiliar or disliked foods is associative conditioning. This refers to changes in one's response to a target food after it is repeatedly, concurrently paired with an unconditioned stimulus - typically another food - that already has a positive valence. While evidence-based, this approach has the disadvantage of adding extra calories and exposure to less healthy foods. Pilot data provided support for the hypothesis that non-food stimuli could be leveraged in conditioning strategies to promote healthier food acceptance. After pairing positive peer interactions (via group games) with tasting a target vegetable across 11 sessions, 6-8-year-old children's preferences for target vegetables increased at post-test. In considering application of this approach for younger children, positive parent-child interactions may be an appropriate non-food stimulus as parents are a primary social influence for this age group. Despite this, no studies to date have leveraged this positive stimulus in the context of associative conditioning paradigms designed to promote vegetable acceptance. Additionally, although other food preference learning approaches, like repeated exposure, are well-established in the experimental literature, less is known regarding individual differences impacting intervention effectiveness. The current study seeks to examine effects of a novel learning strategy leveraging positive parent-child interactions on 3-5-year-old children's vegetable acceptance and dietary intake, as well as to explore individual differences in learning strategy effects. Findings will inform future intervention work, as well as offer insight into potential behavioral factors influencing young children's diet and health.

Conditions

• Obesity, Childhood
• Overweight, Childhood
• Overnutrition
• Pediatric Obesity
• Eating, Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Associative Conditioning	There will be 3 planned activities per week (9 total) within play kits provided to families. Children will first taste their assigned target vegetable and then complete an activity with their parent following provided instructions. Activity instructions will include positive parenting skills adapted from evidence-based parenting programs (i.e., Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and Triple-P) designed to promote positive parent-child interactions.
BEHAVIORAL	Repeated Exposure	There will be 3 planned exposures per week (9 total). Exposures will include only individual tastes of the child's assigned target vegetable.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-10-30
• Primary completion: 2024-08-01
• Completion: 2024-08-01
• First posted: 2023-10-10
• Last updated: 2024-08-27

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States