Happy Family, Healthy Kids Program

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

In Project Year 1, the program will be evaluated with about 160 Head Start children, aged 3 to 5 years, and their parents (one parent per family) in four urban and four rural Head Start centers. The investigators will compare the program outcomes between urban and rural settings. All involved Head S...

In Project Year 1, the program will be evaluated with about 160 Head Start children, aged 3 to 5 years, and their parents (one parent per family) in four urban and four rural Head Start centers. The investigators will compare the program outcomes between urban and rural settings. All involved Head Start centers will support MSU staff to conduct data collection activities (e.g., online survey completed by parents; height, weight, and blood pressure measures; hair samples collected from both children and parents). MSU staff, along with Head Start staff, will implement the 14-week healthy eating program activities including four components: A 14-week parent Facebook-based program focusing on stress management and healthy eating to reduce emotional eating and increase parents' capacity to initiate healthy eating practices at home Three parent face-to-face meetings at Head Start centers to connect parents with each other in person, offer healthy cooking tools/classes, and discuss behavioral change strategies and challenges 14-week child "Eat My ABCs" program at Head Start centers to provide an age-appropriate, healthy eating program to children Weekly child letter to parents to connect child learning at the Head Start center with parental practices at home In Project Year 2, the investigators will finalize the program based on the evaluation outcomes in Project Year 1, and work closely with the participating Head Start organizations to disseminate the healthy eating program to all the participating Head Start centers and classes.

Tracking Information