Family Based Mindfulness Intervention

The goal of the proposed interdisciplinary study is to assess feasibility of recruiting a pilot sample of parents of toddlers and engaging them in a pilot study to test a version of mindfulness-based intervention for parenting stress reduction (PMH), an empirically-supported stress-reduction intervention, plus nutrition and physical activity counseling for parents of preschoolers (aged 2-5); to reduce parent (and child) stress levels; improve parenting; promote healthy eating and physical activity in parent and child; and prevent overweight and obesity in preschoolers with an obese parent.

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.