Tracking Physical Activity and Nutrition Policies and Practices in Early Childhood Education and Care: Five Years Post-Implementation of a Provincial-Level Active Play Standard.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings are key for improving health behaviors, including physical activity (PA) and nutrition. In 2017, the province of British Columbia (BC) implemented a provincial-level Active Play policy supported by a capacity-building intervention. Significant improvements in all PA policies and practices and the majority of nutrition policies were observed post-implementation.

Adolescents' mental health is associated with food parenting practices among British Columbian families.

Background: Adolescence is a developmental period marked by significant changes related to the body and food parenting practices. However, few studies have explored child-level psychological correlates of these practices during adolescence. Our study examined whether adolescents' weight status, weight concerns, self-esteem, and anxiety were associated with food parenting practices, and whether these associations significantly differed by adolescents' gender among 297 families in British Columbia, Canada.

Obesity-related parenting practices, styles, and family functioning: A natural experiment comparing pandemic and nonpandemic data.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial changes to family life. This study examined associations between pandemic conditions and mothers' and fathers' food, physical activity, and media parenting practices and whether these associations were moderated by parenting styles and family functioning. Two independent samples of Canadian parents (nonpandemic = 270; pandemic = 357) self-reported their obesity-related parenting practices, styles, and family functioning.

Recruiting families using social media versus pediatric obesity clinics: A secondary analysis of the Aim2Be RCT.

Background: Recruitment of participants continues to be a challenge that researchers must overcome to yield successful study results. Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of social media platforms to recruit research participants. We conducted a secondary analysis of the Aim2Be randomized controlled trial (RCT) to examine if there was variability between participants recruited via social media versus pediatric obesity clinics.

Patterns of Physical Activity Parenting Practices and Their Association With Children's Physical Activity Behaviors.

Little is known about how parents combine multiple physical activity (PA) parenting practices (PAPP) and their relationship with their child's activity level. This study examined patterns of PAPP and their associations with sociodemographic characteristics and children's PA. Parents of 5- to 12-year-olds ( = 618) completed the 65-items PAPP item-bank assessing their use of structured, autonomy promoting, and controlling PAPP, and reported their child's PA.

Efficacy of the Aim2Be Intervention in Changing Lifestyle Behaviors Among Adolescents With Overweight and Obesity: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Aim2Be is a gamified lifestyle app designed to promote lifestyle behavior changes among Canadian adolescents and their families.

Objective: The primary aim was to test the efficacy of the Aim2Be app with support from a live coach to reduce weight outcomes (BMI Z score [zBMI]) and improve lifestyle behaviors among adolescents with overweight and obesity and their parents versus a waitlist control group over 3 months. The secondary aim was to compare health trajectories among waitlist control participants over 6 months (before and after receiving access to the app), assess whether support from a live coach enhanced intervention impact, and evaluate whether the app use influenced changes among intervention participants.

Do Individual Characteristics and Social Support Increase Children's Use of an MHealth Intervention? Findings from the Evaluation of a Behavior Change MHealth App, Aim2Be.

Mobile health (mHealth) apps may support improved health behavior practice among youth living in larger bodies. However, long-term use is low, limiting effectiveness. This study evaluated whether youths' motivation, satisfaction, engagement with social features, or parent co-participation supported long-term use of an app named Aim2Be.

The Aim2Be mHealth Intervention for Children With Overweight or Obesity and Their Parents: Person-Centered Analyses to Uncover Digital Phenotypes.

Background: Despite the growing number of mobile health (mHealth) interventions targeting childhood obesity, few studies have characterized user typologies derived from individuals' patterns of interactions with specific app features (digital phenotypes).

Objective: This study aims to identify digital phenotypes among 214 parent-child dyads who used the Aim2Be mHealth app as part of a randomized controlled trial conducted between 2019 and 2020, and explores whether participants' characteristics and health outcomes differed across phenotypes.

Methods: Latent class analysis was used to identify distinct parent and child phenotypes based on their use of the app's behavioral, gamified, and social features over 3 months.

Don't take the context out of the picture: Contextually shaped parents' and children's obesogenic behaviors in a marginalized area of Mexico City.

Santa Fe Gully zone is a marginalized area of Mexico City where nearly 39% of children live with either overweight or obesity. Despite the extensive research on obesogenic behaviors, studies frequently overlook the contexts where such behaviors occur. This qualitative study described individual and familial obesogenic behaviors among children with obesity from Santa Fe Gully, and explained how these behaviors might be contextually shaped.

Are fathers' and mothers' food parenting practices differentially associated with children's eating behaviors?

Little is known about how fathers' food parenting practices (FPP) are linked with children's eating behaviors and whether these associations differ from mothers. This study examined associations between paternal and maternal FPP and eating behaviors among children aged 5-12 years. A sample of 565 parents (53% fathers) completed: 1) the FPP item bank, which measured 11 FPP constructs from three domains of parenting (control, autonomy promotion, and structure) and 2) the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ), to assess four constructs (emotional overeating, food responsiveness, satiety responsiveness and food fussiness).

Identifying and predicting food parenting practice profiles among Canadian parents.

Background: Food parenting practices (FPP) can affect children's eating behaviours, yet little is known about how various FPP co-occur. The primary aim was to identify profiles of FPPs use among Canadian parents. Secondary aims included examining sociodemographic correlates of FPP profiles and evaluating whether children's eating behaviours differed across FPP profiles.