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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Barbara L. Dancy, PhD¹, Kathleen S. Crittenden², and Marie Talashek, EdD¹. (1) PMA, University of Illinois at Chicago, 845 South Damen, Office 1060, M/C 802, Chicago, IL 60612, 312-996-9168, bdancy@uic.edu, (2) School of Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 820 S. Morgan, Office 4126C, M/C 312, Chicago, IL 60607

Because African American adolescent females are at risk for obesity and being overweight, the Mother/Daughter Health Promotion (MDHP) intervention, a six-session culturally-, gender- and age-specific skill-building intervention, was tested for its effectiveness over a 6-month period in enhancing daughters' nutrition knowledge and healthy eating behavior. Based on an integration of social cognitive learning theory and theory of reasoned action, MDHP was delivered in a group format by mothers who received intensive 12 week training. A repeated measures design, with hierarchical linear modeling to adjust for clustering within groups, utilized a sample of 421 daughters, age 11-14, of low-income, single mothers. MDHP was compared to two control interventions: Mother/Daughter HIV Risk Reduction and the Health Expert HIV Risk Reduction interventions. The dependent variable was daughter's eating behavior and the mediating variables were daughters' nutrition knowledge, self-efficacy to eat nutritionally, and intention to eat nutritionally. Because the results revealed that healthy eating behavior decreased with age and was enhanced by physical activities, we controlled for daughters' age and participation in physical activities. We hypothesized that compared to daughters in the control interventions, daughters in MDHP would have higher scores on mediating variables and would report healthier eating behavior. Compared to daughters in the control interventions, daughters in MDHP intervention had more nutrition knowledge, greater intentions to eat nutritionally, and healthier eating behavior. The intervention affected eating behavior through its effects on intentions. The results suggest that health providers help mothers enhance daughters' healthy eating behavior by increasing daughters' knowledge and intentions.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• identify key variables related to healthy eating behavior
• articulate components of the Mother/Daughter Health Promotion Intervention

Keywords: Adolescent Health, African American

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No