Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Department of Health Policy, Management, and Behavior, State University of New York, Albany, NY, 12222, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2022 Mar;296:114761. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114761. Epub 2022 Jan 31.
Parent health-related empowerment is defined as the process by which parents realize control over their life situation and take action to promote a healthier lifestyle. For decades, researchers have described the theoretical potential of empowerment in health promotion efforts, though few have empirically examined this hypothesized relationship. This study is one of the first to examine the relationship between parental empowerment and healthy weight parenting practices (i.e., food, physical activity, sleep, and media parenting), as a mechanism for early childhood health promotion in community settings.
Low-income parents of preschool-aged children attending Head Start in Greater Boston between fall 2017 and spring 2019 were invited to complete a survey in the fall and spring of each academic school year (n = 578 with two surveys and n = 45 with four). Parental empowerment and healthy weight parenting practices were assessed using validated surveys. We used a multilevel difference-in-difference approach to estimate changes in healthy weight parenting practices score by changes in parental empowerment score.
Out of a possible score of four, the unadjusted mean (SD) score in fall was 3.20 (0.40) for empowerment and 3.01 (0.40) for parenting. An increase in parental empowerment was associated with an increase in healthier parenting practices (b = 0.14; 95% CI = 0.08, 0.20; p < 0.0001).
Parent empowerment may be an important target in interventions to prevent obesity in low-income children.
家长健康相关赋权是指父母实现对其生活状况的控制并采取行动促进更健康生活方式的过程。几十年来，研究人员描述了赋权在健康促进工作中的理论潜力，尽管很少有实证研究检验这种假设关系。本研究是首次检验父母赋权与健康体重养育实践（即饮食、身体活动、睡眠和媒体养育）之间关系的研究之一，作为社区环境中促进儿童早期健康的机制。
2017 年秋季至 2019 年春季，邀请大波士顿地区参加 Head Start 的学龄前儿童的低收入父母在每个学年的秋季和春季完成一项调查（n=578 人完成两次调查，n=45 人完成四次调查）。使用经过验证的调查评估父母赋权和健康体重养育实践。我们使用多层次差分法估计父母赋权得分变化与健康体重养育实践得分变化之间的关系。
在可能的四分制中，秋季的未调整平均（SD）赋权得分是 3.20（0.40），养育得分是 3.01（0.40）。父母赋权的增加与更健康的养育实践的增加相关（b=0.14；95%CI=0.08，0.20；p<0.0001）。
家长赋权可能是预防低收入儿童肥胖的干预措施中的一个重要目标。
