A taste of good health: school-based parent and family healthy lifestyles classes to reduce childhood obesity

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of ???A Taste of Good Health,??? a school-based parent education program designed to affect healthful behavior in parent participants and their families in a large urban school district. Participant nutrition, physical activity, cooking knowledge, and Body Mass Index (BMI) were measured before, during, and three months after the parent education intervention. To address the research questions, this dissertation employed mixed-methods and pre-experimental survey design in evaluating the effectiveness of the parent workshops. The planned intervention consisted of a 4-week program, meeting once a week for 2?? hours at each meeting, for a total of 10 hours of instruction. In order to measure the effectiveness of the intervention in changing participants??? knowledge and behavior, quantitative data were collected through survey administration. There were a total of 202 participants who consented to participate in the research study. To augment the quantitative data, qualitative data were collected from participants in the program during debriefing sessions at week 4 and at the follow up sessions in week 12. In addition, during the follow up sessions in week 12, one-on-one questioning was completed with each participant. Results suggest that participants used the knowledge gained in the classes to create healthier home environments for their children and families. Using both quantitative and qualitative measures, major findings indicated participants in all five schools reported: (1) significantly increasing their nutrition, cooking, and physical activity knowledge from pretest to posttest and follow-up; (2) significantly decreasing their body weight and BMI from pretest to posttest; and (3) making significant changes in cooking, eating, and physical activity behaviors