Feasibility of increasing childhood outdoor play and decreasing television viewing through a family-based intervention in WIC, New York State, 2007-2008.

INTRODUCTION: Active Families is a program developed to increase outdoor play and decrease television viewing among preschool-aged children enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Our objective was to assess its feasibility and efficacy. METHODS: We implemented Active Families in a large WIC clinic in New York State for 1 year. To this end, we incorporated into WIC nutrition counseling sessions a community resource guide with maps showing recreational venues. Outcome measures were children's television viewing and time playing outdoors and parents' behaviors (television viewing, physical activity), self-efficacy to influence children's behaviors, and parenting practices specific to television viewing. We used a nonpaired pretest and posttest design to evaluate the intervention, drawing on comparison data from 3 matched WIC agencies. RESULTS: Compared with the children at baseline, the children at follow-up were more likely to watch television less than 2 hours per day and play outdoors for at least 60 minutes per day. Additionally, parents reported higher self-efficacy to limit children's television viewing and were more likely to meet physical activity recommendations and watch television less than 2 hours per day. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that it is feasible to foster increased outdoor play and reduced television viewing among WIC-enrolled children by incorporating a community resource guide into WIC nutrition counseling sessions. Future research should test the intervention with a stronger evaluation design in multiple settings, with more diverse WIC populations, and by using more objective outcome measures of child behaviors.

Overweight girls who internalize fat stereotypes report low psychosocial well-being.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines developmental change and intraindividual stability in girls' fat stereotypes and associations between girls' internalization of stereotypes and their psychosocial well-being. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Participants included 163 non-Hispanic white girls. Girls' fat stereotypes were assessed at ages 9 and 11 years and their height and weight and all measures of psychosocial well-being, including global self-worth, perceived physical appearance, and maladaptive eating attitudes, were assessed at ages 9, 11, and 13 years. Change in girls' fat stereotypes between ages 9 and 11 was assessed using Repeated Measures ANOVA. Intraindividual stability in stereotypes was assessed using Spearman rank correlation analysis. Planned comparisons were used to test the hypothesis that overweight girls who internalize fat stereotypes are at heightened risk of poor psychosocial well-being. RESULTS: Girls' fat stereotypes decreased significantly between ages 9 and 11. Moderate intraindividual stability was observed in overweight girls', but not nonoverweight girls', reported stereotypes. As predicted, overweight girls who reported high fat stereotypes reported significantly lower psychosocial well-being than all other girls in the sample, independent of their weight status. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that overweight girls may be particularly sensitive to weight-based stereotypes and may experience poor psychosocial well-being when they internalize stereotypes. Health practitioners working with overweight girls need to be aware of girls' sensitivity to weight-based stereotypes and should actively work against condoning and reinforcing such stereotypes.