Eating Behavior, Obesity, Parenting, Sleep
Conditions
Brief summary
The objective of this study is to provide pilot data on the feasibility and effectiveness of a web-based social networking intervention designed to promote sleep early in infancy and to explore the potential for this approach to promote healthy feeding routines, eating behaviors, and weight outcomes in subsequent larger-scale intervention research. First-time parents will be recruited (n=66) and randomized to an 8-week web-based social networking sleep intervention or general baby care control group with interventions beginning at infant age 8 weeks. Parents will complete online surveys, with research questions including: 1) whether the sleep intervention leads to longer nighttime and total sleep duration and decreased night waking among infants and 2) longer infant sleep bouts and improved parent sleep duration, stress, parenting efficacy, and parenting satisfaction. We will also examine infants' routines, feeding and eating behaviors, and emotion regulation to inform the application of this approach for childhood obesity prevention. The pilot research will provide insights into intervention feasibility, effects on infant sleep, and potential impacts on feeding and eating outcomes, informing our next steps.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALBaby Sleep
See arm description
BEHAVIORALBaby Care
See arm description
Sponsors
State University of New York at Buffalo
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Masking description
Participants are randomly assigned to one of two online, behavioral interventions. Because the participants will know which behaviors are promoted to their group, and study staff will be interacting with the participants in their groups, masking is not possible. However, which group is considered the main intervention versus the attention control will not be known to participants.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* English-speaking, first-time parents/legal guardians \>18 years of a young infant who is \< 6 weeks at the time of recruitment (or pregnant first-time parents expecting an infant soon). We will not include any parents who report that they do not have access to or an interest in using a private group on social media and/or online surveys.
Exclusion criteria
* We will exclude families not meeting age criteria, as well as any parents who report that they do not have access to or an interest in using a private group on social media and/or online surveys. We will also exclude parents of infants who are born premature (prior to 37 weeks gestational age) and parents of multiples (twins, triplets, etc.).
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Nighttime infant sleep duration | From baseline (infant age 6 weeks) to follow-up (age 7 months) | Total hours of nighttime sleep for the infant, from the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (Sadeh) |
| Number of infant night wakings | From baseline (infant age 6 weeks) to follow-up (age 7 months) | Number of night wakings for the infant, from the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (Sadeh) |
| Total infant sleep duration | From baseline (infant age 6 weeks) to follow-up (age 7 months) | Total hours of sleep for the infant, from the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (Sadeh) |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Infant's longest sleep bout | From baseline (infant age 6 weeks) to follow-up (age 7 months) | Longest sleep bout for the infant, item written by the study team |
| Parent sleep duration | From baseline (infant age 6 weeks) to follow-up (age 7 months) | Total hours of sleep per night reported by the parent, from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Buysse) |
| Parent stress | From baseline (infant age 6 weeks) to follow-up (age 7 months) | Stress scores from the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen) (minimum value = 0, maximum value = 40; higher scores mean more stress) |
| Parenting self-efficacy | From baseline (infant age 6 weeks) to follow-up (age 7 months) | Efficacy scale from the Parenting Sense of Competence Questionnaire (Gibaud-Wallston & Wandersman) |
| Parenting satisfaction | From baseline (infant age 6 weeks) to follow-up (age 7 months) | Satisfaction scale from the Parenting Sense of Competence Questionnaire (Gibaud-Wallston & Wandersman) |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Limit exposure | Follow-up (infant age 7 months) | Limit exposure subscale from the Structure & Control in Parent Feeding Questionnaire (Savage) |
| Restriction | Follow-up (infant age 7 months) | Restriction subscale from the Structure & Control in Parent Feeding Questionnaire (Savage) |
| Mealtime routines | Follow-up (infant age 7 months) | Mealtime routines subscale from the Structure & Control in Parent Feeding Questionnaire (Savage) |
| Pressure to eat | Follow-up (infant age 7 months) | Pressure to eat subscale from the Structure & Control in Parent Feeding Questionnaire (Savage) |
| Nutritional quality | Follow-up (infant age 7 months) | We will create a composite variable that is a proxy for nutritional quality using the frequencies that the consumption of various food groups (vegetables, fruit, fried food, sweets) are reported |
| Emotion regulation | Follow-up (infant age 7 months) | Regulation superfactor from the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Very Short Form (Rothbart) |
| Infant routines | Mid-point (infant age 3 months) to post-test (infant age 4 months) | Routine subscale from the Infant Parenting Styles Questionnaire (Arnott & Brown) |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed