Clinical trial NCT06074926: Promoting Food Acceptance Through Positive Parenting: the Play and Grow Study
Official title: Promoting Healthier Food Acceptance and Intake Among Young Children Using a Novel Positive Parent-Child Interaction Strategy
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Obesity, Childhood
Overweight, Childhood
Overnutrition
Pediatric Obesity
Eating, Healthy
Keywords: Repeated Exposure
Associative Conditioning
Positive Parenting
Food Acceptance
Diet Quality
Lead sponsor: State University of New York at Buffalo
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-10-10
Enrollment: 50
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 3
Maximum age (years): 5
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief 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.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Child is 3-5 years old
* Parent/ guardian is 18 years of age or older
* Child is not diagnosed with a serious physical or mental health condition that precludes safe participation
* Parent and child are English speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

* The child is outside the age range of 3-5 years
* Child is diagnosed with a serious physical or mental health condition that precludes participation
* Parent/ guardian is less than 18 years of age

Primary outcomes:
measure: Child's target vegetable preference
timeFrame: Week 5 (post-test)
measure: Child's target vegetable liking
timeFrame: Week 5 (post-test)
measure: Child's willingness to taste target vegetable
timeFrame: Week 5 (post-test)
measure: Child target vegetable ad libitum consumption
timeFrame: Week 5 (post-test)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Reported general parenting
timeFrame: Week 5 (post-test)
measure: Observed general parenting
timeFrame: Week 5 (post-test)
measure: Observed child affect/behavior
timeFrame: Week 5 (post-test)
Other outcomes:
measure: Frequency of vegetables consumed by child (past week)
timeFrame: Week 4 (intervention period)
measure: Variety of vegetables consumed by child (past week)
timeFrame: Week 4 (intervention period)
Locations:
city: Buffalo
country: United States
facility: State University of New York at Buffalo
state: New York
Study officials:
affiliation: State University of New York at Buffalo
name: Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: