Familys' Web: Cancer Prevention for Daughters

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DESCRIPTION (provided by investigator): African-Americans (AA) experience a higher incidence of many cancers, and higher mortality rates than those of other ethnic populations. Inadequate intakes of fruit, juice, and vegetables (FJV) and high dietary fat have been associated with increased risks for several cancers. Children's current FJV and fat intakes do not meet recommended guidelines and national data indicate a decline in children's fruit consumption through the school years. Families are an important component of the social environment within which health related behaviors are learned and are practiced. Two primary mechanisms of family influence on children's dietary behaviors are direct modeling and authoritative parenting of dietary behaviors. This proposal will test the feasibility of a parent targeted intervention program on parent modeling and authoritative parenting practices, delivered via the internet, for a target group of AA parents of 9-12 year old daughters, to promote increased preferences for fruit, juice, vegetables, and low fat foods. The control group will receive a knowledge-based "Eat 5 A day" message, while the treatment group will receive the knowledge-based message plus a tailored modeling and authoritative parenting practices intervention, with pre, post, and follow up assessments of the process evaluation and mediating psychosocial measures. The internet will be also be utilized to collect the data. Use of the internet is designed to minimize problems of low participation. In phase 1 of this research, focus groups will be conducted for the development and pre-assessment of the intervention, and of the psychosocial measures. The process evaluation of the intervention with participants recruited from 12 AA churches (12 parent-daughter pairs per church) will take place during phase 2. Church will be the unit of assignment and analysis. An internet delivered intervention targeting family mechanisms is an innovative approach for children's dietary behavior change. This feasibility or pilot study will provide the foundation for a full scale intervention focused on dietary change.