Conmigo: A Mother-daughter Intervention to Promote Physical Activity

Summary

Regular physical activity (PA) contributes to reduced risk of obesity, chronic disease, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, and can improve emotional and mental health, learning, productivity, and social skills. Latina girls are less likely to meet guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) than non-Hispanic white girls; factors that contribute to low PA rates among Latina girls include sex role expectations, low PA competency, few active role models, lack of parental support for PA, and lack of access to resources.

The goal of this study, informed by social cognitive theory and family systems theory, is to design, implement, and evaluate an intervention promoting physical activity among Latina pre-adolescent girls (aged 8-11) and their mothers. The intervention is based on evidence suggesting that parent-child interventions and single-sex interventions are more effective at improving PA. Mothers and daughters will participate in a 12-week virtual intervention where they will engage in weekly 1.5-hour sessions that incorporate didactic teaching, skill-building, interactive discussions, and PA. Each session will include at least 30 minutes of PA. The intervention will be compared with a control condition that will receive an abbreviated version of the intervention following completion of all measurement points.

Ninety mother-daughter dyads will be randomly assigned to the intervention or the wait-list control condition. The primary aim is to determine whether the intervention will increase MVPA among Latina girls in the intervention condition relative to those in the control condition. The investigators hypothesize that daughters participating in Conmigo will have higher minutes of MVPA at M2 and M3 compared to girls in the delayed treatment control condition.

Conditions

• Exercise
• Women
• Hispanic Americans
• Child

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Intervention

Twelve weekly sessions will be led by Ms. Schneider and Ms. Montañez supported by Drs. Arredondo and Ayala and student research assistants. Mothers and daughters will participate in weekly virtual 1.5-hour sessions that include didactic teaching, skill building (including PA parenting and communication skills training), interactive discussions, PA, and homework review (homework examples: 30-min walks, practicing communication strategies). Mothers and daughters will attend sessions together, with 10-12 mother-daughter dyads participating in each series. Sessions 2-12 will include at least 30 min PA. Sessions will discuss strategies to engage in PA outside the sessions (goal of 60-min MVPA daily).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• San Diego State University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Elva M Arredondo, PhD · San Diego State University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

8 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-02-11

Primary Completion

2023-01-24

Completion

2023-04-19

Countries

• United States

Study Locations