Ward et al. BMC Public Health 2011, 11:431 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/431 S T U D Y P R O T O C O L Open Access Integrating a family-focused approach into child obesity prevention: Rationale and design for the My Parenting SOS study randomized control trial Dianne S Ward1,2*, Amber E Vaughn2, Kant I Bangdiwala2,3, Marci Campbell1,2, Deborah J Jones4, Abigail T Panter4 and June Stevens1 Abstract Background: More than 20% of US children ages 2-5 yrs are classified as overweight or obese. Parents greatly influence the behaviors their children adopt, including those which impact weight (e.g., diet and physical activity). Unfortunately, parents often fail to recognize the risk for excess weight gain in young children, and may not be motivated to modify behavior. Research is needed to explore intervention strategies that engage families with young children and motivate parents to adopt behaviors that will foster healthy weight development. Methods: This study tests the efficacy of the 35-week My Parenting SOS intervention. The intervention consists of 12 sessions: initial sessions focus on general parenting skills (stress management, effective parenting styles, child behavior management, coparenting, and time management) and later sessions apply these skills to promote healthier eating and physical activity habits. The primary outcome is change in child percent body fat. Secondary measures assess parent and child dietary intake (three 24-hr recalls) and physical activity (accelerometry), general parenting style and practices, nutrition- and activity-related parenting practices, and parent motivation to adopt healthier practices. Discussion: Testing of these new approaches contributes to our understanding of how general and weight- specific parenting practices influence child weight, and whether or not they can be changed to promote healthy weight trajectories. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00998348 Background Preventing obesity in children requires intervening early, before a child becomes overweight and an unhealthy weight gain trajectory is established. Current estimates from the US indicate that even among the youngest children, those aged 2-5 years, more than 20% are already overweight or obese [1]. The literature consis- tently demonstrates that rapid growth and excess weight during childhood increases the risk of obesity later in life [2]. Excess weight also increases a child’s risk for many adverse outcomes related to their short and long term physical and mental health, including high blood * Correspondence: dsward@email.unc.edu 1Department of Nutrition in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article pressure, diabetes, elevated cholesterol, fatty liver dis- ease, asthma, depressive symptoms, anxiety, low self- esteem, low body image, and mood and conduct disor- ders [3-5]. Despite the alarming prevalence of overweight in chil- dren and the health risks associated with excess weight, prevention of child obesity is not a seen as a priority for many parents. This remains the case in spite of wide- spread understanding among professionals that obesity prevention efforts must engage parents who are the key gatekeepers that shape the social and physical environ- ment of the home, and, as a result, influence their child’s diet and physical activity behaviors [6-8]. Multi- ple studies have demonstrated that most parents are unable to recognize when their child is overweight, especially younger children [9-12]. Even when parents © 2011 Ward et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.