Measurement and health locus of control among children.
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Attitude to Health↗
Biomedical subjects
Tom Baranowski
Publications and source records attributed to Tom Baranowski.
Ethnicity and children's health: hope for the future.
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Child↗
Fruit and vegetable shopping practices and social support scales: A validation.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the psychometric characteristics of new scales of shopping practices and social support for purchasing fruits and vegetables. DESIGN: Participants were recruited in front of diverse grocery stores. Telephone data collection was done on 2 occasions, separated by 6 weeks. PARTICIPANTS: 166 food shoppers with children at home participated. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: New scales of food shopping practices and social support for purchasing fruits and vegetables were psychometrically analyzed and related to a measure of home fruit or vegetable availability as a test of construct validity. ANALYSIS: Both classical test and item response theory procedures were used. Correlations related the new measures to home fruit and vegetable availability. RESULTS: Single dimension scales were specified for fruit and vegetable shopping practices (35% of the variance), fruit purchase social support (53% of the variance), and vegetable purchase social support (52% of the variance). Item response theory difficulty estimates varied from -0.64 to 0.73 for fruit and vegetable shopping practices, from -0.55 to 0.33 for fruit purchase social support, and from -0.55 to 0.34 for vegetable social support. Each scale significantly correlated with home fruit and vegetable availability (construct validity), even after controlling for social desirability of response (0.19 for shopping practices, 0.37 for fruit purchasing social support, and 0.28 for vegetable purchasing social support). Person separation reliability was 0.80 for food shopping practices, 0.74 for fruit purchasing social support, and 0.73 for vegetable purchasing social support. CONCLUSION: The scales performed well. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE: These scales are now available to help better understand fruit and vegetable shopping practices, fruit purchase social support, and vegetable purchase social support.
Adult↗
Validation of a fruit, juice, and vegetable availability questionnaire.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the validity of a self-reported fruit, juice, and vegetable home availability measure. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: In-home interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-eight parents of fourth to sixth grade children. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Scales assessing self-reported home availability of fruit, 100% fruit juice, and vegetables over the past 7 days compared with an observed home inventory conducted on the interview day. ANALYSES: Cohen's kappa of agreement, specificity and sensitivity, and correlations, with significance level <.05. RESULTS: There was substantial agreement between self-reported and observed home inventories of many fruit, 100% fruit juice, and vegetables among participating families in this study. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Self-reported shelf inventories can be an effective tool for use in assessing the availability of fruit, juice, and vegetables in the home.
Adult↗
Influences on diet and physical activity among middle-class African American 8- to 10-year-old girls at risk of becoming obese.
OBJECTIVE: To understand diet, physical activity, and inactivity influences among preadolescent African American girls at risk of becoming obese. DESIGN: Interviews and group qualitative discussions (i.e., mixed qualitative research method) were conducted separately with 8- to 10-year-old African American girls and their parents. SETTING: Greater Houston, Texas. PARTICIPANTS: Eight- to 10-year-old African American girls above the 50th percentile body mass index with a home computer (n = 82) and a parent (n = 74). VARIABLES MEASURED: Influences on dietary practices and physical activity/inactivity among preadolescent African American girls. ANALYSIS: Discussions were audiotaped, manually recorded, transcribed, and coded. The primary coder analyzed the transcribed notes. The secondary coder reviewed and critiqued the initial coding. RESULTS: Parents and girls were concerned about overweight and viewed physical activity as a weight control practice. Mothers facilitated daughters' physical activity, while fathers and siblings were coparticipants. Girls had access to physical activity equipment and facilities. Snack food items and carbonated beverages were often limited by the parents, and water consumption was encouraged. Discrepancies were apparent between girls' and parents' responses. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Parental convenience and girls' food preferences influenced dietary intake. Obesity prevention programs should capitalize on parental motivation for their child's health and provide practical strategies to facilitate healthful eating and physical activity.
Black or African American↗
Environmental Influences and What Have We Learned From Dietary Behavior Change With Children?
Sparse research exists on factors influencing use of dietary supplements or on programs to increase dietary supplement use among children. Borrowing from the literature concerning influences on children's diet, parents likely influence children's dietary supplement intake by controlling their availability and accessibility at home and through parenting and socialization strategies. Borrowing from the literature on programs to change diet, programs to promote dietary supplements will likely work when implemented with highly motivated individuals, delivered by specialists and promoting increased, rather than decreased, consumption. Research into these areas is warranted.
Journal Article↗
Observed, GIS, and self-reported environmental features and adolescent physical activity.
PURPOSE: Examine associations among observed, self-reported, and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) environmental features and physical activity among adolescent males. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Boy Scout troops and neighborhoods in Houston, Texas. SUBJECTS: Two hundred and ten 10- to 14-year-old Boy Scouts. MEASURES: Accelerometry to obtain minutes of sedentary, light, and moderate to vigorous activity per day. GIS sources were used to identify the numbers of parks, gymnasiums, trails, bus stops, grocery stores, and restaurants within a 1-mile radius of participant residences as well as residential density, connectivity, and crime. Participants provided a self-report of their environment. ANALYSIS: Principal component analysis was used to reduce the number of GIS and self-reported items. Four factors were previously obtained from direct observations of the neighborhoods. Correlations were conducted among factors and physical activity. Regression models were run in which minutes of sedentary behavior, light, or moderate to vigorous physical activity were the dependent variables and environmental factors were the independent variables. Nonsignificant variables were removed in a backward deletion process. RESULTS: Three GIS factors, Parks, Crime, and Gyms, were obtained as were two self-reported factors: difficulty and access and safety. Factor scores were interrelated and associated with the four observed factors. Only observed sidewalk characteristics were correlated with physical activity and were retained in the regression models. CONCLUSION: Environmental factors were interrelated. Only sidewalk characteristics were associated with sedentary behavior and light intensity physical activity.
Adolescent↗
School-based obesity prevention: a blueprint for taming the epidemic.
OBJECTIVE: To review the literature on school-based obesity prevention programs to identify what can be done to minimize the increasing levels of obesity. METHODS: Twenty articles reporting school-based dietary or physical activity change programs were identified that used BMI or skinfolds as part of the evaluation. RESULTS: Seven studies obtained change in BMI and differed from those not finding change in 3 ways: program implementers were not classroom teachers; intervention targeted middle or high schools; and inactivity reduction was promoted. CONCLUSIONS: An 8-step research strategy was delineated to develop and evaluate programs with a maximum chance of taming the obesity epidemic.
Adolescent↗