Family Based Mindfulness Intervention

This project was a preliminary feasibility and pilot efficacy study to assess stressed low income parents of toddlers who were obese to assess whether a mindfulness based parenting intervention (PMH) can reduce their stress, increase parenting and improve family healthy food and physical activity choices. Parents and toddlers also participated in a Toy Wait Task, a behavioral assay of parenting.The empirically-supported stress-reduction intervention, plus nutrition and physical activity counseling (Control) for parents of preschoolers (aged 2-5) was compared to a nutrition and physical activity counseling alone condition to assess whether PMH improved toddler weight, physical activity and parent emotion regulation and healthy eating.