REDUCING CHILDREN'S TELEVISION VIEWING TO PREVENT OBESITY
OVERVIEW
This school-based intervention is designed to prevent obesity through the reduction of child television viewing. In an evaluation of the program, each of two participating schools was randomly assigned to have its students either receive the intervention or to a no-treatment control group. Results indicated that children in the intervention group improved significantly more on most of the body composition indicators relative to children in the control group. Children receiving the intervention also viewed significantly less television and ate significantly fewer meals in front of the television than children in the control group. However, the two groups of children did not differ on measures of physical fitness or nutrition.
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM
Target population: 3rd and 4th grade children.
This school-based, obesity prevention program encourages children to watch less television. It is implemented during 18, 30 to 50 minute sessions, over the course of the school year. The curriculum encourages children to monitor, self-report, and reduce their television, videotape, and video game use. The program then provides the children with a "turnoff" challenge, which encourages the children to not watch television and videotapes and to not play video games for a span of ten days. Following the challenge, children are encouraged to allow themselves a maximum of seven hours a week engaging in these modes of entertainment. Later lessons teach children to become advocates for reducing media use. Parents also receive newsletters designed to assist them in helping their children stay within the media usage budget.
EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM
Robinson, T. N. (1999). Reducing children's television viewing to prevent obesity: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 282(16), 1561-1567.
Evaluated population: 198 third- and fourth-grade children from two elementary schools in San Jose, California served as the sample for this evaluation.
Approach: Each school was randomly assigned to the intervention or to a no-treatment control group. Children in the intervention group received the program curriculum as part of their daily classroom instruction. The program was delivered over the course of one year. At pre-test and post-test, children from intervention and control schools were assessed on indicators of body composition, physical activity, and nutrition.
Results:
Body composition. Children receiving the intervention experienced significantly greater improvements between baseline and post-test on most measures of body composition compared to children in the control group, including BMI, skinfold thickness, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio. There were no significant differences between groups on measures of waist circumference.
Physical activity. For physical activity indicators, children and parent report indicated that children receiving the intervention watched significantly less television than children in the control group. Children in the intervention also reported spending less time playing video games than those in the control group. Also, children and parents from the intervention reported significantly lower rates of dining in front of the television. There were no differences across groups on child or parent reports of sedentary behavior or on parent reports of child physical activity. Additionally, children in the intervention and control groups did not differ on tests of physical fitness. Finally, children did not differ across groups on measures of snacking in front of the television.
Nutrition. There were no differences across groups on child report of consumption of high-fat foods or highly advertised foods.
Robinson, T. N. (1999). Reducing children's television viewing to prevent obesity: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 282(16), 1561-1567.
Program categorized in this guide according to the following:
Evaluated participant ages: N/A
Evaluated participant grades: Grades 3 through 4
Program age ranges in the guide: Middle Childhood
Program components: School-Based, Parent or Family Component
Measured outcomes: Physical Health
Keywords: Elementary, Co-Ed, School-Based, Parent Training, Skills Training, Nutrition, Physical Activity, Weight
Program information last updated on 6/24/09.