Adapted Group Lifestyle Triple P: Results from a Randomized Pilot Intervention Trial
Open Access
- Author:
- Li, Jacinda Changhui
- Graduate Program:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- November 11, 2014
- Committee Members:
- Scott David Gest, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Janet Agnes Welsh, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- childhood obesity
healthy lifestyle
cultural adaptation
parenting
Triple P - Abstract:
- This study evaluated the effectiveness of a lifestyle-specific parenting program for the treatment and prevention of childhood obesity. The program aims to change parents’ confidence in their parenting practices and ability to manage their child’s lifestyle behaviors, and by extension, the child’s lifestyle behaviors, psychosocial adjustment, and body size. A pilot randomized trial was conducted in two central Pennsylvania communities with 36 families of mostly overweight and obese 5- to 13- year-old children. The trial aimed to test against a delayed-intervention control group the Australian Group Lifestyle Triple P (GLTP) intervention, which was adapted for the implementation with an American audience and through community settings. Results of pre-post and effect size analyses of the parent and child outcomes showed that the adapted GLTP (a-GLTP) generally demonstrated improvements in parent confidence, parenting practices, child psychosocial adjustment, and child BMI z-scores. Mediation analyses indicated that GLTP operated indirectly on parents’ concern about child weight and child’s hyperactivity through changes in parent confidence. Overall, the results of this pilot study support the effectiveness of the a-GLTP for American families in central Pennsylvania and suggest that parent influences treatment outcomes. The findings will inform future larger-scale effectiveness trial to establish long-term effectiveness of the intervention.