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The 'Dads And Daughters Exercising and Empowered' (DADEE) Community Rollout: Effectiveness of a father-daughter physical activity program delivered by trained facilitators in community settings

The 'Dads And Daughters Exercising and Empowered' (DADEE) Community Rollout: Effectiveness of a father-daughter physical activity program delivered by trained facilitators on meeting physical activity recommendations.

Status
Completed
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Interventional
Source
ANZCTR
Registry ID
ACTRN12617001450303
Acronym
DADEE (Dads And Daughters Exercising and Empowered)
Enrollment
542
Registered
2017-10-12
Start date
2017-10-16
Completion date
2019-10-21
Last updated
2023-10-23

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

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 DADEE program has been previously been evaluated in an efficacy RCT (ACTRN12615000022561) and an effectiveness RCT (ACTRN12616001270404). The primary aim of this study is to research the long-term effectiveness of the DADEE program in a larger scale community roll-out. In total, 12 programs will be evaluated over three years using a non-randomized, prospective design with 12-month follow-up for each program.

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 will also be invited to attend session 4 of the program, where all family members partici

* 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 will also be invited to attend session 4 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 and pre-service 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 sports 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
Lead SponsorIndividual

Study design

Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Intervention model
Single group
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Open (masking not used)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
All
Age
4 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

Men can participate if they: - Are a father or father-figure of a daughter currently attending primary school (K - 6) - Are able to pass a health-screening questionnaire. - Are able to attend the program sessions - Are able to attend program assessments Aside from attending primary school (K-6), there are no additional eligibility criteria for daughters.

Exclusion criteria

Men with notable pre-existing health conditions (e.g., history of cardiovascular disease, recent chest pains while exercising) will require a doctor's clearance prior to enrollment. There are no additional exclusion criteria for daughters.

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ANZCTR · Data processed: Feb 5, 2026