Preventing Childhood Obesity Through a Mindfulness-Based Parent Stress Intervention: A Randomized Pilot Study
Open accessAbstract
Objective To assess the feasibility of engaging stressed, low-income parents with obesity in a novel mindfulness-based parent stress intervention aimed at decreasing the risk of early childhood obesity.Study design An 8-week mindfulness-based parent stress group intervention (parenting mindfully for health) plus nutrition and physical activity counseling (PMH+N) was developed for parents with obesity aimed at preventing obesity in their at-risk 2- to 5-year-old children. PMH+N was compared with a control group intervention (C+N), and improvement in parenting was assessed before and after the intervention using the laboratory-based toy wait task (TWT). In addition, nutrition, physical activity, and stress were assessed using a multimethod approach.Results After establishing feasibility in 20 parent-child dyads (phase 1), 42 dyads were randomized to PMH+N vs C+N (phase 2). Compared with the C+N group, the PMH+N group demonstrated significantly better group attendance (P < .015), greater improvement in parental involvement (P < .05), and decreased parental emotional eating rating (P < .011). Furthermore, C+N, but not PMH+N, was associated with significant increases in child body mass index percentile during treatment (P < .03) when accounting for the TWT before and after changes in parenting scores.Conclusions These findings suggest that a mindfulness-based parent stress intervention to decrease childhood obesity risk is feasible, requires further testing of therapeutic mechanisms in larger samples, and may be a potential way to attenuate the risk of childhood obesity.Trial registration ClinicalTrials.govNCT01974102.
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Two of the reviewed studies (6%) focused on parents with physical challenges related to obesity or a genetic condition.
“Two studies (6%) focused on parents with physical challenges related to obesity or a genetic condition (i.e., FMR1 premutation) [31,32].”
From Centering Diverse Communities within Mindful Parenting Interventions in the U.S.: A Narrative Literature Review (2024) · cites this paper as [32]
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References 42 · Cited by 57
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- [20]Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines. Federal Register. 2017; 82(19): 8831– 2.
- [32]Napoli M, Krech PR, Holley LC. Mindfulness training for elementary school students. Journal of Applied School Psychology. 2005; 21: 99– 125.
- [42]Berry D, Sheehan R, Heschel R, Knafl K, Melkus G, Grey MF-bifcoAr. Family-based interventions for childhood obesity: A review. Journal of Family Nursing. 2004; 10(429).
- Authors
- Jastreboff, A. M., Chaplin, T. M., Finnie, S., Savoye, M., Stults-Kolehmainen, M., Silverman, W. K., & Sinha, R.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- George Mason University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Sinha, Rajita
- Venue
- The Journal of Pediatrics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-11
- Volume
- 202
- Pages
- 136-142.e1
- ISSN
- 0022-3476 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6203652
- OpenAlex
- W2891046285
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 5.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- The Journal of Pediatrics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (R21AT-007708- 01A1)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Keywords
- childhood obesity prevention, parental obesity, mindfulness-based interventions, parent stress, parenting, emotional eating, nutrition counseling, physical activity counseling, low-income parents, childhood body mass index, parental involvement, feasibility
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Child, Preschool, Counseling, Feasibility Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Obesity, Parents, Pilot Projects, Stress, Psychological, Exercise, Parenting, Pediatric Obesity, Mindfulness
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