Enhancing Self Regulation as a Strategy for Obesity Prevention in Head Start Preschoolers

The goal of this integrated project targeting the Childhood Obesity Prevention Challenge Area
is to reduce the prevalence of obesity among children attending Head Start in Michigan. The
proposed intervention program is based on Social Cognitive theory and the premise that
enhancing children's capacity for emotional and behavioral self-regulation is a key component
of effective obesity prevention. A randomized controlled trial design is proposed to
evaluate, among 600 Head Start children and their parents, the effectiveness of 2 approaches
to obesity prevention: (1) the Parents of Preschoolers Prevention Series (POPS), a curriculum
delivered to preschoolers and their parents focused on obesity-related health behaviors; and
(2) POPS in combination with the Incredible Years Series (IYS), an evidence-based program
designed to improve preschoolers' emotional and behavioral self-regulation. The research
objective is to test the hypotheses that: (1) POPS, compared to Usual Head Start exposure,
will lead to greater improvements in obesity-related health behaviors and adiposity indices;
and (2) POPS + IYS will lead to the greatest improvements in obesity-related health behaviors
and adiposity indices, and this effect will be mediated by improved self-regulation. The
extension objective is to evaluate the feasibility, fidelity, and educational effectiveness
of the POPS and POPS + IYS interventions, as delivered by paraprofessionals and educators
within Extension and Head Start. The education objective is to provide Extension and Head
Start staff non-formal training and educational curricula which can be widely disseminated.
The long-term goal of this project is disseminate a novel and effective approach to obesity
prevention in preschoolers.