Rosenkranz et al. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:81 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/81 Page 4 of 13 In the seven Girl Scout Junior troops, parental informed consents were obtained for all but one child (n = 76, 100% female). Of parents consenting for their child to participate (n = 72) a majority also participated by returning questionnaires (n = 68). Troops held meet- ings in one of three adjacent Midwestern towns, ranging in population from about 4,000 to 50,000. Troop meet- ings were held either weekly (2 troops) or bi-monthly (5 troops), and between one and two hours in duration. Meetings were held at the Girl Scouts organization’s property (4 troops), at a troop leader’s home (2 troops), or at a community center (1 troop). Troops ranged in size from 6 to 16 girls (mean = 11). Individual charac- teristics are presented in Table 1. Description of Intervention Our intervention was based on core components of Social Cognitive Theory, including: Role modelling by peers, troop leaders, and parents; skill building through active mastery experiences; enhancement of self-efficacy and proxy efficacy through role playing and active mas- tery experiences; and reinforcement of behavior through verbal praise and merit badges [39]. The intervention consisted of three main components: 1) An interactive educational curriculum delivered by troop leaders; 2) Troop meeting policies implemented by troop leaders; and 3) Badge assignments completed at home by Girl Scouts with parental assistance. The educational curri- culum consisted of eight modules, delivered over the course of about four months. This intervention curricu- lum is an expanded version of our previously published work used in summer programs [30]. Each module consisted of a discussion of intervention target behaviors, worksheet for goal setting and self- monitoring, physically active recreation session (e.g., walking, dancing, yoga, and active games), FV snack recipe preparation, FM role-playing, clean-up period, and description of the take-home assignment. The Intervention Mean (SD) 56.3 28.1 79.4 20.6 31.1 (3.9) 38.8 (3.3) 23.2 (3.9) 64.4 (10.4) 2.7 (1.3) 10.6 (1.1) Control Mean (SD) 48.7 35.0 75.0 25.0 32.9 (4.4) 38.6 (3.6) 23.9 (4.1) 60.4 (12.2) 2.4 (0.8) 10.5 (1.3) Figure 1 CONSORT diagram showing the flow of participants through stages of randomized trial. troop participation. Participating troops earned $10 per girl, and individual families earned $10 for taking part in the study. Girl Scouts and Parents To meet study inclusion criteria at the individual level, girls had to be attending members of Girl Scouts in one of our included troops. All girls of participating troops were included for direct observation variables, and those with parental consent were included for the individual variables under study. Parents were included if they agreed to complete a questionnaire for each child attending one of the troops. Exclusion criteria included an inability to speak or read English (n = 1). Table 1 Individual characteristics by troop assignment at Time 1 Demographic & Psychosocial Variables Percent parents are college graduates Percent lower socio-economic status Percent Non-Hispanic Caucasian girls Percent racial/ethnic minority girls Authoritarian Parenting Scale Scorea Authoritative Parenting Scale Scorea Permissive Parenting Scale Scorea Family Cohesion Scale Scoreb Children per household Girl’s Age Note: aScale scores 10-50, higher numbers possessing more of the trait; bScale scores 16-80, higher numbers possessing more of the trait; no significant differences by condition