Promoting Child Inhibitory Control Skills Around Food
Condition: Obesity
MeSH terms: Obesity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Today's environment provides many hedonic stimuli that promote consumption of unhealthy
      energy-dense snack foods. It is widely recognized that a systems approach is required to deal
      with this complex problem. However, individuals, particularly children, also need to develop
      the personal capacity to deal with tempting stimuli and inhibit responses to these
      energy-dense foods. Therefore in this proposal, we will focus on enhancing higher level
      executive functions, particularly inhibitory control, which is needed to counterbalance
      impulsive behavior and is crucial for growth and development. We have chosen to focus on
      developing inhibitory control in preschool-age children because executive
      functioning/inhibitory control and eating habits are developing at this time. Among
      preschool-age children, inhibitory control is fostered through social play-based curriculums
      and has been found to be related to greater school readiness and academic skills. Therefore,
      the goal of this proposal is to adapt a play-based curriculum, the Tools of the Mind program,
      to promote greater inhibitory control skills in preschool children and decrease consumption
      of energy-dense snack foods. In Phase I, we will develop and pilot a Child Inhibitory Control
      Play-based Program (CHIC Play) among children age 4- to 6-years old. We will adapt the
      learning tools used in the Tools of the Mind curriculum and employ naturalistic play
      scenarios, drawings (visual support), and games to teach children to inhibit their responses
      to energy-dense snack foods. Once developed, we will test the efficacy of CHIC Play in the
      preschool setting. Parent groups will also be conducted to support the adoption of these
      skills at home. The primary outcome of interest is caloric intake and age- and
      gender-adjusted percent of daily caloric intake as measured by the Eating in the Absence of
      Hunger (EAH) free access procedure and a snack time procedure. Inhibitory control skills will
      also be measured using executive functioning tasks. Feasibility and acceptability of this
      program will be determined from parent, child, and teacher surveys. The purpose of this study
      is to develop a new innovative method of decreasing energy-dense snack food consumption by
      promoting the development of inhibitory control or impulse control. If successful, this
      program has the potential to play a role in the treatment and prevention of childhood
      obesity.
    


Intervention name(s): CHild Inhibitory Control (CHIC) Play; Attention control
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): CHIC Play paradigm: Children will exposed to several play paradigms that enhance inhibitory control around snack foods. Children will receive the intervention in the preschool setting over a 3 week period.; Children will receive an equal amount of time with the RA, but focus on other healthy behaviors and not use inhibitory control skills training techniques
Other intervention name(s): Inhibitory control training; Executive functioning training; Tools of the Mind Curriculum; Control group
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Basic Science
Keywords: Inhibitory control; executive functioning; childhood obesity; preschool; snack foods; caloric intake