Parents and caregivers play a key role in shaping the development of children’s dietary habits and movement behaviors. Supporting parents/caregivers to increase children’s healthy food intake and physical activity, reduce nutrient poor food intake and sedentary time, and improve sleep, all require behavior change. Changing behavior is complex, and further complicated when targeting parents/caregivers to improve children’s health outcomes indirectly. There are numerous factors that may influence the foods and movement opportunities parents/caregivers provide to their children. To effectively intervene and support families, it is crucial to first determine what is needed to help change parental behaviors. Behavior change theories provide frameworks to help untangle the complexity of behavior change. However, the rationale and theoretically underpinning of behavior change approaches is often unclear in the reporting of interventions to support children and families.
Due to the varied application of behavior change approaches, we have a limited understanding of the most effective methods to support children and families in changing diet and movement behaviors, and whether different approaches are needed in different settings and populations. There remains a need for high-quality research to explore the influences of behavior change approaches and to test their effectiveness of behavior change approaches in interventions, in a variety of settings and with priority populations.
This Research Topic aims to present the latest evidence exploring and testing behavior changes approaches to support children and families to improve diet intake and movement behaviors. Transparent publication of different behavior change approaches to support families will help to collectively advance the integration of behavioral medicine in the field of nutrition and 24h movement behaviors.
We are particularly interested in original research, methods, hypothesis and theory, study protocol, and systematic review articles focused on the following themes:
• Understanding influences that can facilitate or inhibit children and families’ behavior change;
• Effectiveness of behavior change interventions to improve children and families’ diet, activity, sedentary behavior and/or sleep;
• Innovative strategies to apply behavior change methods with children and families;
• Evidence synthesis coding and examining behavior change content of past intervention with children and families;
• Qualitative investigations into parent perceptions of children’s dietary habits and movement behaviors, with a view to inform behavior change interventions.
Parents and caregivers play a key role in shaping the development of children’s dietary habits and movement behaviors. Supporting parents/caregivers to increase children’s healthy food intake and physical activity, reduce nutrient poor food intake and sedentary time, and improve sleep, all require behavior change. Changing behavior is complex, and further complicated when targeting parents/caregivers to improve children’s health outcomes indirectly. There are numerous factors that may influence the foods and movement opportunities parents/caregivers provide to their children. To effectively intervene and support families, it is crucial to first determine what is needed to help change parental behaviors. Behavior change theories provide frameworks to help untangle the complexity of behavior change. However, the rationale and theoretically underpinning of behavior change approaches is often unclear in the reporting of interventions to support children and families.
Due to the varied application of behavior change approaches, we have a limited understanding of the most effective methods to support children and families in changing diet and movement behaviors, and whether different approaches are needed in different settings and populations. There remains a need for high-quality research to explore the influences of behavior change approaches and to test their effectiveness of behavior change approaches in interventions, in a variety of settings and with priority populations.
This Research Topic aims to present the latest evidence exploring and testing behavior changes approaches to support children and families to improve diet intake and movement behaviors. Transparent publication of different behavior change approaches to support families will help to collectively advance the integration of behavioral medicine in the field of nutrition and 24h movement behaviors.
We are particularly interested in original research, methods, hypothesis and theory, study protocol, and systematic review articles focused on the following themes:
• Understanding influences that can facilitate or inhibit children and families’ behavior change;
• Effectiveness of behavior change interventions to improve children and families’ diet, activity, sedentary behavior and/or sleep;
• Innovative strategies to apply behavior change methods with children and families;
• Evidence synthesis coding and examining behavior change content of past intervention with children and families;
• Qualitative investigations into parent perceptions of children’s dietary habits and movement behaviors, with a view to inform behavior change interventions.
