Promoting Health Equity: Identifying Parent and Child Reactions to a Culturally-Grounded Obesity Prevention Program Specifically Designed for Black Girls Using Community-Engaged Research

Abstract

The Butterfly Girls (BFG) Study is a culturally and developmentally appropriate online obesity prevention program for 8–10-year-old Black girls designed with key stakeholders in the Black community. This multi-methods investigation, conducted with parent–child dyads who participated in an outcome evaluation of the intervention, aimed to understand parent and child reactions to the program. We were particularly interested in understanding perceptions regarding its cultural and developmental appropriateness, relevance and acceptability. Program participation and survey data (demographics, parent and child write-in comments on process evaluation surveys) were analyzed. Participation data demonstrated high adherence in treatment and comparison groups. Descriptive statistics were calculated for survey data and highlighted the socioeconomic diversity of the sample. Post intervention surveys included two fill-in-the-blank questions for parents (n = 184 for question 1, n = 65 for question 2) and one for children (n = 32). Comments were analyzed using structured thematic analysis. The majority of the feedback from child participants was complimentary and many found the program relatable. Among the parent responses, the majority found the program to be beneficial in its educational nature and in promoting behavior change. This multi-methods analysis suggests that the BFG program was perceived as beneficial by parents while being culturally and developmentally appropriate and engaging for young Black girls, highlighting the importance of co-collaboration in program development.

Diet Quality among Pre-Adolescent African American Girls in a Randomized Controlled Obesity Prevention Intervention Trial

“…This is consistent with the findings of other children’s dietary intake change [ 37 ] and obesity prevention [ 18 ] interventions, with no obvious explanation for the lack of effectiveness. The high retention and exposure rate (most girls in the two intervention groups watched all eight episodes) [ 62 ] yielded the power to adequately test the effect.…”

“…Further support for this can be obtained from reviewing the post-intervention reactions to the intervention. While both parents and girls in the intervention groups reported favorable reactions to the program, a parent mentioned that the dietary recalls were burdensome for her daughter [ 62 ]. Anecdotal information shared by dietitians during data collection support that the dietary recalls were difficult for the girls, supporting other reports that children this age have difficulty accurately reporting dietary intake [ 69 ].…”