Family Habit Physical Activity Study

Summary

The purpose of this study is to examine physical activity habit formation in parents and if this can increase moderate to vigorous physical activity behavior in their children over six months. The Primary Research Question is:

Does the habit formation condition result in increased moderate-vigorous intensity physical activity of the child compared to the control (education) and education + planning conditions at six months? Hypothesis: Child physical activity will be higher for the habit formation condition in comparison to the more standard physical activity education and planning conditions at six months.

Conditions

• Physical Activity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Family Physical Activity Planning

Families will receive the same guidelines as the standard education control group but will also be provided with family physical activity planning material. This material will include a skill training content workbook on how to plan for family physical activity. The material includes a brainstorming exercise for parents where they list physical activities they think their children have found fun in the past, as well as activities that they would find enjoyable to do as a family. We will provide this material as prompts/suggestions. Families will be instructed to plan for "when," "where," "how," and "what" physical activity will be performed \& then track their physical activity. These aspects will be re-introduced and discussed at week 6 and week 12 in booster sessions

BEHAVIORAL

Family Physical Activity Habit Formation

Families will receive the same content as the education control condition and the physical activity planning condition but with additional material on creating physical activity support habits. A key component of the habit section will be based on planning for context-dependent repetition, with pointers on how to maintain repetition as habit forms. The importance of creating cues for parental support of child physical activity is then outlined. Cues will also be considered factors that a) can precede the support activity but b) not be present very often when the activity is not to be performed. We will suggest that cues that have repeated exposure during times when family physical activity is not present Parents will then be asked to brainstorm and create a plan of consistency and cues with the workbooks provided. These aspects will be re-introduced and discussed at week 6 and week 12 in booster sessions.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada

  collaborator OTHER

• University of British Columbia

  collaborator OTHER

• Dalhousie University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Alberta

  collaborator OTHER

• King's College London

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Victoria

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ryan Rhodes, PhD · University of Victoria

• Chris Blanshard, PhD · Dalhousie University

• Valerie Carson, PhD · University of Alberta

• Benjamin Gardner, PhD · King's College London

• Darren Warburton, PhD · University of British Columbia

• Mark Beauchamp, PhD · University of British Columbia

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-02-12

Primary Completion

2025-09-30

Completion

2025-12-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations