Families Moving Together: Increasing Physical Activity of Parents and Children

The “Families moving together” dissertation study was a community educational intervention designed to help parents and guardians as they work with their children to live a healthy lifestyle. The “WeCan!” curriculum, a community specific program offered by NIH, was chosen because of the solid theoretical framework and alignment to Social Cognitive Theory. A total of 64 participants; 38 children and 26 parents were assigned to a treatment group, either the parents-only group (POG, n= 29), or the parents- children group (PCG, n= 35). During both baseline and post assessment, participants: 1)completed self-efficacy instruments, and self report activity questionnaires, 2) were measured for height and weight, and 3) were given a pedometer. Depending on the treatment group assignment, participants were asked to attend four education sessions over an 8-week time period. The primary outcomes were physical activity and exercise self-efficacy. The paired samples t-test revealed a small increase in the pedometer readings from pre- to post-test for all participants. Independent samples t-test revealed no significant change in pedometer readings for children in either group and a small, but significant change in pedometer readings for adults between the two treatment groups. There were no significant changes in exercise self-efficacy for either group. Although results were limited, these findings suggest a parent-children education intervention may result in more favorable changes in physical activity increases for the parents. Limitations of the study were the small number of participants and the short time frame of the intervention.