Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T06:43:40.787Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Training Parents of Overweight Children in Parenting Skills: A 12-Month Evaluation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2011

Ellen Moens  and
Caroline Braet
Ellen Moens*
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Belgium
Caroline Braet
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Belgium
*
Reprint requests to Ellen Moens, Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, H. Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: The origins of childhood obesity invariably need to be looked at within a family context and several reviews have concluded in favour of parental involvement in the treatment of paediatric obesity. However, there is little consensus on the format, and next to weight outcomes behavioural outcomes also merit more attention when assessing program effectiveness. Method: In this pilot study, a total of 50 families with overweight children (aged 6–12) were randomly allocated to a parent-led intervention group (cognitive behavioural training) or to a waiting list control group (Study 1). Afterwards, the parents of the waitlist control group also followed the intervention. All children were included in a follow-up study and were compared with a reference group (Study 2). Results: The intervention group as well as the waitlist group (who had not yet received treatment) showed a decrease in adjusted BMI over a 6-month period, although the decrease was only significant for the intervention group (Study 1). All children showed a decrease of 7% in adjusted BMI from pre to one-year follow-up measurement (Study 2), while the reference group showed an increase in adjusted BMI over that period. Parents reported significant positive changes in children's eating behaviour and a significant positive increase in familial health principles. Conclusions: Weight and behavioural outcomes suggest potential for intervention effectiveness. Long-term follow-up is needed to reveal residual benefits of enhanced parenting skills on environmental lifestyle changes.

Keywords

Childhood obesityparent-led interventionweight related and behavioural outcomes
Type
Empirically Grounded Clinical Interventions
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addessi, E., Galloway, A. T., Visalberghi, E. and Birch, L. L. (2005). Specific social influences on the acceptance of novel foods in 2-5-year-old children. Appetite, 45, 264–271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birch, L. L. and Davison, K. K. (2001). Family environmental factors influencing the developing behavioral controls of food intake and childhood overweight. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 48, 893–906.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birch, L. L. and Fisher, J. O. (1998). Development of eating behaviours among children and adolescents, Pediatrics, 101, 539–549.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bourcier, E., Bowen, D. J., Meischke, H. and Moinpour, C. (2003). Evaluation of strategies used by family food preparers to influence healthy eating. Appetite, 41, 265–272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braet, C., Claus, L., Goossens, L., Moens, E., Soetens, B. and Van Vlierberghe, L. (2008). Differences in eating style between overweight and normal-weight youngsters. Journal of Health Psychology, 13, 733–743.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braet, C., Jeannin, R., Mels, S., Moens, E. and Van Winckel, M. (2010). Ending prematurely a weight loss program: the impact of child and family characteristics. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 17, 406–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braet, C., Joossens, L., Mels, S., Moens, E. and Tanghe, A. (2007). Kinderen en Jongeren met Overgewicht: handleiding voor begeleiders. Antwerpen: Garant.Google Scholar
Braet, C., Mervielde, I. and Vandereycken, W. (1997). Psychological aspects of childhood obesity: a controlled study in a clinical and non-clinical setting. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 22, 59–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braet, C., Soetens, B., Moens, E., Mels, S., Goossens, L. and Van Vlierberghe, L. (2007). Are two informants better than one? Parent-child agreement on the eating styles of children who are overweight. European Eating Disorder Review, 15, 410–417.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braet, C. and Van Winckel, M. (2000). Long-term follow-up of a cognitive behavioral treatment program for obese children. Behavior Therapy, 31, 55–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braet, C., Van Winckel, M. and Van Leeuwen, K. (1997). Follow-up results of different treatment programs for obese children. Acta Pediatrica, 86, 397–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braet, C. and Wydhooge, K. (2000). Dietary restraint in normal weight and overweight children: a cross-sectional study. International Journal of Obesity, 24, 314–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caccialanza, R., Nicholls, D., Cena, H., Maccarini, L., Rezzani, C., Antonioli, L., et al. . (2004). Validation of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire parent version (DEBQ-P) in the Italian population: a screening tool to detect differences in eating behavior among obese, overweight and normal-weight preadolescents. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 58, 1217–1222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2000). EpiInfo's Nutrition Program, NutStat. Retrieved 19 January 2005, from www.cdc.gov/epiinfo.Google Scholar
Costanzo, P. R. and Woody, E. Z. (1985). Domain-specific parenting styles and their impact on child's development of particular deviance: the example of obesity proneness. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 3, 425–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, W. T. and Kitzzman, K. M. (2008). Broadening parental involvement in family-based interventions for pediatric overweight. Family and Community Health, 4, 259–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietz, W. H. (1998). Prevalence of obesity in children. In Bray, G. A., Bouchard, C. and James, W. P. T. (Eds.), Handbook of Obesity (pp. 93–102). New York: Marcel Dekker.Google Scholar
Epstein, L. H., McKenzie, S. J., Valoski, A., Klein, K. R. and Wing, R. R. (1994). Effects of mastery criteria and contingent reinforcement for family-based behavioral treatments for childhood obesity. Addictive Behaviors, 19, 135–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, L. H., Paluch, R. A., Gordy, C. C. and Dorn, J. (2000). Decreasing sedentary behaviours in treating pediatric obesity. Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, 154, 220–226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Epstein, L. H., Paluch, R. A., Roemmich, J. N. and Beecher, M. D. (2007). Family-based obesity treatment, then and now: twenty-five years of pediatric obesity treatment. Health Psychology, 26, 381–391.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Faith, M. S., Scanlon, K. S., Birch, L. L., Francis, L. A. and Sherry, B. (2004). Parent-child feeding strategies and their relationships to child eating and weight status. Obesity Research, 12, 1711–1722.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisher, J. O. and Birch, L. L. (1999). Restricting access to palatable foods affects children's behavioural response, food selection, and intake. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 69, 1264–1272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Francis, L. A. and Birch, L. L. (2005). Maternal weight status modulates the effects of restriction on daughters’ eating and weight. International Journal of Obesity, 29, 942–949.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frederiks, A. M., van Buuren, S., Wit, J. M. and Verloove-Vanhorick, S. P. (2002). Body index measurements in 1996–1997 compared with 1980. Archives of Diseases in Childhood, 82, 107–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golan, M. and Crow, S. (2004). Targeting parents exclusively in the treatment of childhood obesity: long-term results. Obesity Research, 12, 357–361.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Golan, M., Fainaru, M. and Weizman, A. (1998). Role of behavior modification in the treatment of childhood obesity with the parents as the exclusive agents of change. International Journal of Obesity, 22, 1217–1224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Golley, R. K., Magarey, A. M., Baur, L. A., Steinbeck, K. S. and Daniels, L. A. (2007). Twelve-month effectiveness of a parent-led, family-focused weight-management program for prepubertal children: a randomized, controlled trial. Pediatrics, 3, 517–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four Factor Index of Social Status. New Haven, CT: Yale University.Google Scholar
Howell, D. C. (1997). Statistical Methods for Psychology (4th edn.). New York: Duxbury Press.Google Scholar
Israel, A. C., Stolmaker, L. and Andrian, C. A. G. (1985). The effects of training parents in general child management skills on a behavioral weight loss program for children. Behavior Therapy, 16, 169–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Israel, A. C., Stolmaker, L., Sharp, J. P., Silverman, W. K. and Simon, L. G. (1984). An evaluation of two methods of parental involvement in treating obese children. Behavior Therapy, 15, 266–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, S. L. and Birch, L. L. (1994). Parents' and children's adiposity and eating style. Pediatrics, 94, 653–661.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kazdin, A. E., Holland, M., Crowley, M. and Breton, S. (1997). Barriers to treatment participation scale: evaluation and validation in the context of child outpatient treatment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 1051–1062.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kitzmann, K. M. and Beech, B. M. (2006). Family-based interventions for pediatric obesity: methodological and conceptual challenges from family psychology. Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 175–189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lissau, I. and Sorensen, T. (1994). Parental neglect during childhood and increased risk of obesity in young adulthood. The Lancet, 8893, 324–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luttikhuis, H. O., Baur, L., Jansen, H., Shrewsbury, V. A., O'Mally, C., Stolk, R. P., et al. . (2009). Interventions for treating obesity in children. Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews, 1, CD001872.Google Scholar
Luttikhuis, H. O., Stolk, R. P. and Sauer, P. J. J. (2010). How do parents of 4- to 5-year-old children perceive the weight of their children? Acta Pediatrica, 99, 263–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLean, N., Griffin, S., Toney, K. and Hardeman, W. (2003). Family involvement in weight control, weight maintenance and weight-loss interventions: a systematic review of randomised trials.International Journal of Obesity, 27, 987–1005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendelson, B. K., White, D. R. and Schlieker, E. (1995). Adolescent's weight, sex and family functioning. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 1, 73–79.3.0.CO;2-1>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munsch, S., Roth, B., Michael, T., Meyer, A. H., Biedert, E., Roth, S., et al. . (2008). Randomized controlled comparison of two cognitive behavioral therapies for obese children: mother versus mother-child cognitive behavioral therapy. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 77, 235–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patterson, G. R., Reid, J. and Dishion, T. (1992). Antisocial Boys: a social interactional approach (Vol. 4). Eugene: Castalia Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Ricciardelli, L. A. and McCabe, M. P. (2001). Children's body image concerns and eating disturbance: a review of literature. Clinical Psychology Review, 21, 325–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, T. N., Kiernan, M., Matheson, D. M. and Haydel, K. F. (2001). Is parental control over children's eating associated with childhood obesity? Obesity Research, 9, 306–312.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
St. Jeor, A. T., Perumean-Chaney, S., Sigmant-Grant, M., Williams, C. and Foreyt, J. (2002). Family-based interventions for the treatment of childhood obesity. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 102, 640–643.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Summerbell, C. D., Ashton, V., Campbell, K. J., Edmunds, L., Kelly, S. and Waters, E. (2003). Interventions for treating obesity in children. Cohrane Database Syst Rev, 3, CD001872.Google Scholar
Tibbs, T., Haire-Joshu, D., Schechtman, K. B., Brownson, R. C., Nanney, M. S., Houston, C., et al. . (2001). The relationship between parental modelling, eating patterns, and dietary intake among African-American parents. Journal of the Dietetic Association, 101, 535–541.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Leeuwen, K. G. (2000). Deficits in parenting skills as an indicator of behavior problems with children and youth: development of a screening instrument for the Flemish community. Unpublished manuscript, Ghent University, Department of Psychology.Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, K. G. and Vermulst, A. A. (2004). Some psychometric properties of the Ghent Parental Behavior Scale. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 20, 283–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Strien, T., Frijters, J. E. R., Bergers, G. P. A. and Defares, P. B. (1986). The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) for assessment of emotional, external and restrained eating behavior. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 5, 295–313.3.0.CO;2-T>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ventura, A. K. and Birch, L. L. (2008). Does parenting affect children's eating and weight status? International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 5, 15–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warschburger, P. and Kröller, K. (2009). Maternal perception of weight status and health risks associated with obesity in children. Pediatrics, 124, e60–e68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitaker, R. C., Wright, J. A., Pepe, M. S., Seidel, K. D. and Dietz, W. H. (1997). Predicting obesity in young adulthood from childhood and parental obesity. New England Journal of Medicine, 337, 869–873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Young, K. M., Northern, J. J., Lister, K. M., Drummond, J. A. and O'Brien, W. H. (2007). A meta-analysis of family-behavioural weight-loss treatments for children. Clinical Psychology Review, 27, 240–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.