Objective: To examine the long-term effects of having one overweight or obese parent on child weight status and determine whether these effects vary according to parent sex. Design: Prospective study: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Subjects: Two-parent families (N ¼ 3285) from the LSAC were included if height and weight data were available for both parents and their child at the 2004 and 2008 time points. Measurements: Child weight status category (healthy, overweight, obese) in 2008 when the child was aged 8 -9 years. Regression modelling was used to investigate how self-reported parent weight status in 2004 influenced measured child weight status 4 years later. Results: Parent body mass index (BMI) was significantly correlated with child BMI, but there was no evidence of sex-specific associations between parent and child BMI correlations. The results from the regression analysis showed that having an overweight or obese father, but a healthy weight mother, significantly increased the odds of child obesity (odds ratio: 4.18, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01 -17.33 and odds ratio: 14.88, 95% CI: 2.61 -84.77, respectively), but the reverse scenario (overweight or obese mother with a healthy weight father) was not a significant predictor of child overweight or obesity (odds ratio: 2.52, 95% CI: 0.38 -16.71 and odds ratio: 2.56, 95% CI: 0.31 -21.26, respectively). Conclusions: Children with overweight or obese fathers are at a higher risk of becoming obese. This suggests that interventions are urgently required to test the efficacy of treating overweight fathers as a key strategy for childhood obesity prevention and/or treatment.

Findings from a qualitative study suggest that the CALM intervention provides substantial benefits for patients with advanced cancer prior to the end of life. Findings informed the development of a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention.

Energetic, competitive, body-contact play (rough and tumble play (RTP)) is commonly observed among young children and is reported as an important feature of father -child relationships. Animal studies have demonstrated positive developmental effects of peer -peer play-wrestling, influencing cognitive and social outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the nature of RTP between father and child and its relationship to child development and to describe a theoretically informed measure of the quality of father -child RTP.

Behavioural parent training programs have been developed to address child behaviour problems through improvement in parenting practices. Ideally, programs would demonstrate effectiveness with all parents. The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program is widely reported as an effective, evidence-based program for parents. However, in this meta-analysis we demonstrate that there are significant differences in program effectiveness for mothers and fathers. We show that while Triple P has a large positive effect on mothers' parenting practices, it has a smaller effect on fathers' parenting practices. Considering that fathers make a significant and unique contribution to child development, we argue that it is important for parenting programs to assess their effectiveness with fathers as well as mothers.