None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
It is well established that physical activity is associated with many physical and psychological health benefits. Participating in regular physical activity during childhood is also vital for optimal growth and development and kids who are active show greater resilience and increased social-emotional wellbeing. However, more than 80% of adolescent girls do not meet government physical activity recommendations and there is a striking difference in activity levels between boys and girls at all ages. Current strategies to engage girls in physical activity and sports programs have had minimal impact and innovative approaches that address the underlying socio-cultural barriers that girls face are needed. Targeting fathers to take an active role in increasing their daughters’ physical activity levels may be one such innovation. The DADEE Program is an intervention which engages fathers in positive lifestyle role modelling and effective parenting strategies to improve the physical activity behaviours, physical confidence, sport skills and social-emotional wellbeing of their daughters. Importantly, DADEE also targets girls to improve the fitness and physical activity levels, and parenting skills of their fathers. The program has been successfully tested in an efficacy RCT at the University of Newcastle. The aim of this trial is to test the effectiveness of the DADEE Program when delivered by local trained facilitators in community settings (i.e., schools). As in the DADEE pilot study, the two major purposes of this community effectiveness trial are: (i) to help fathers improve their own physical activity levels and learn parenting skills to promote and role model positive behaviours relating to physical activity for their daughters (ii) to improve the physical activity behaviours, fundamental movement skill proficiency and social-emotional well-being of their daughters.
Interventions
* Fathers and daughters will attend 9 weekly face-face sessions of the DADEE program together.
* Each session will be broken up into 3 components:
(i) a 15-minute education session with fathers and daughters together;
(ii) a 30-minute education session for fathers and daughters conducted separately;
(ii) a 45-minute practical session where fathers and daughters participate together.
Mothers and siblings are also invited to attend session 5 of the program, where all family members participate
* Fathers and daughters will attend 9 weekly face-face sessions of the DADEE program together. * Each session will be broken up into 3 components: (i) a 15-minute education session with fathers and daughters together; (ii) a 30-minute education session for fathers and daughters conducted separately; (ii) a 45-minute practical session where fathers and daughters participate together. Mothers and siblings are also invited to attend session 5 of the program, where all family members participate in the activities together.. * The sessions will be group-based (~20 families), delivered by university-trained facilitators (qualified teachers) at local school halls. For fathers, the education sessions focus on proven parenting strategies to improve their daughters’ social-emotional well-being, sports skills and physical activity levels. The daughters’ education sessions focus on developing key social and emotional skills including self-control, persistence, critical thinking, resilience, and self-reliance. The 45-minute DADEE practical sessions focus on 3 key areas - Rough and Tumble Play, Fitness and Fundamental Movement Skills. * All fathers will be provided with program resources including a t-shirt, a folder containing session summaries, a, sport skills booklet and a log book to document brief tasks (e.g., step count monitoring). * All daughters will receive a t-shirt and a booklet with session summaries. As in the sessions, the daughters material will cover similar themes to the dads material, but will be tailored for the age group. *All participants will have access to the 'DADEE' App for the duration of the program (and beyond the study period). This app includes physical activity tasks for fathers to complete with their daughter/s at home (e.g., rough and tumble play activities, fitness circuits, sports skills games). Brief instructions are provided for each task on the app. Participants will be advised to complete activities from a variety of categories equating to an approximate time investment of 30 minutes per week. Adherence to the intervention will be monitored by: - Attendance records at the sessions - Activities completed in the Dads Log Book - Activities completed on the DADEE app
Sponsors
Professor Philip Morgan
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
4 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Men can participate if they: - Are a father, step father or male guardian (who lives with their daughter at least 50% of the week) - Have a daughter who attends primary school (K-6) - Are able to pass a health-screening questionnaire Daughters can participate if they currently attend primary school (K-6).
Exclusion criteria
Men will require a doctors certificate to participate if they report: - A history of major medical problems such as heart disease or diabetes - Orthopedic or joint problems that would be a barrier to completing physical activity such as walking There are no additional key exclusion criteria for the daughters.
Outcome results
None listed