Nutrition, Healthy
Conditions
Keywords
health, nutrition, children, parent perceptions, school lunch, school breakfast, food access
Brief summary
This study aims to determine whether an online marketing campaign increases children's school meal participation. Parents whose children do not currently eat school meals frequently will be exposed to messages designed to encourage their children's increased participation in school meals.
Detailed description
In this 6-week-long online randomized controlled trial, participants will be randomized to one of two arms: 1) Control (neutral) messages or 2) Messages designed to increase school meal participation. In each arm, participants will join private Facebook groups corresponding to their study arm. The study team will post campaign messages to these groups. Participants will answer online survey questions before and after the study on their attitudes about school meals and their child's participation in school meals.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALSchool meal messages
Messages focused on the benefits of children consuming school lunch and breakfast, using text and images developed based on parent interviews. Participants will view a total of 10 messages.
BEHAVIORALControl (neutral) messages
Control messages approximately matched to the intervention messages on length and design, but discussing a neutral topic unrelated to school meals (reading). Participants will view a total of 10 messages.
Sponsors
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Stanford University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
SINGLE (Investigator)
Masking description
The investigator and data analyst will not be aware of participants' assignments.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* 18 years or older * Parent of a child attending a public school in grades 1-5 * Resides in one of the following states: California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont * Has internet access * Has a Facebook account * Child consumes 3 or fewer school lunches per week or 3 or fewer school breakfasts per week
Exclusion criteria
* Younger than 18 years old * Does not have a child attending a public school in grades 1-5 * Resides out of one of the following states: California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont * Does not have internet access * Does not have a Facebook account * Child consumes more than 3 school lunches per week and more than 3 school breakfasts per week
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Children's consumption of school lunches | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the usual number of days per week their child ate school lunch during the past month. Assessed with 1 item: Thinking about the last month, how many days a week did your child usually eat school lunch? This item will be scored on a 6-point scale from 0 days per week (0) to 5 days per week (5). |
| Children's consumption of school breakfasts | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the usual number of days per week their child ate school breakfast during the past month. Assessed with 1 item: Thinking about the last month, how many days a week did your child usually eat school breakfast? This item will be scored on a 6-point scale from 0 days per week (0) to 5 days per week (5). |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of school meals campaign topics recognized | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the number of topics they recognize having seen in messages about school meals. Assessed with 1 item: Which of these topics did the messages discuss, if any? Check all that apply. Response options list 8 topics plus options for none of these and not sure. Number of topics recognized will be calculated as the sum of all topics that parents indicate they have seen. Those who answer, none of these and not sure will be coded as recognizing 0 topics. Those who report not noticing the school meal marketing campaign will be coded as recognizing 0 topics. |
| Social interactions about campaign | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the frequency with which they talked to others about their assigned campaign messages. Assessed with 1 item: In the last month, how often did you talk to others about these messages? This item will be scored on a 5 point scale ranging from Never or less than 1 time per week (1) to Every day or more often (5). |
| Social interactions about school meals | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the frequency with which they talked to others about school meals. Assessed with 3 items (e.g., In the last month, how often did you talk to others about school meals?). Response options are on a 5-point scale ranging from Never or less than 1 time per week (1) to Every day or more often (5). Responses to the 3 items will be averaged to create a mean score. |
| Perceived benefits of school lunch | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the benefits of their child consuming school lunch. Assessed with 8 items (e.g., My child eating school lunch helps my child do well in school). Response options are on a 5-point scale ranging from Strongly disagree (1) to Strongly agree (5). Responses to the 8 items will be averaged to create a mean score. |
| Perceived benefits of school breakfast | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the benefits of their child consuming school breakfast. Assessed with 8 items (e.g., My child eating school breakfast helps my child do well in school). Response options are on a 5-point scale ranging from Strongly disagree (1) to Strongly agree (5). Responses to the 8 items will be averaged to create a mean score. |
| Knowledge that school lunch is free | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental knowledge that lunches served at their child's school are free to all students. Assessed with 1 item: Are school lunches free for all students at your child's school? Response options yes (coded as 1) and no or not sure (both coded as 0). |
| Knowledge that school breakfast is free | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental knowledge that breakfasts served at their child's school are free to all students. Assessed with 1 item: Are school breakfasts free for all students at your child's school? Response options yes (coded as 1) and no or not sure (both coded as 0). |
| Frequency of reading campaign messages | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the frequency with which they read their assigned campaign messages. Assessed with 1 item: In the past month, how often did you read these messages? This item will be scored on a 5 point scale ranging from Never or less than 1 time per week (1) to Every day or more often (5). |
| Perceived healthfulness of school breakfast | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental perception of the healthfulness of the breakfasts served at their child's school. Assessed with 1 item: How healthy or unhealthy are the school breakfasts at your child's school? Response options are on a 5-point scale ranging from Very unhealthy (1) to Very healthy (5). |
| Intentions to encourage their children's consumption of school lunch | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the likelihood of encouraging their child to eat school lunch in the next month. Assessed with 1 item: In the next month, how likely are you to encourage your child to eat school lunch? Response options are on a 5-point scale ranging from Not at all likely (1) to Extremely likely (5). |
| Intentions to encourage their children's consumption of school breakfast | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the likelihood of encouraging their child to eat school breakfast in the next month. Assessed with 1 item: In the next month, how likely are you to encourage your child to eat school breakfast? Response options are on a 5-point scale ranging from Not at all likely (1) to Extremely likely (5). |
| Barriers to children's school lunch consumption | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the barriers preventing their child from eating school lunch. Assessed with 1 item: What are some reasons that your child doesn't eat school lunch more often? Check all of the reasons that apply. Response options list 15 reasons plus NA - my child eats school lunch every day or almost every day and a free response option for other. Total number of barriers selected will be summed. Those who report NA - my child eats school lunch every day or almost every day will be coded as having 0 barriers. |
| Barriers to children's school breakfast consumption | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental report of the barriers preventing their child from eating school breakfast. Assessed with 1 item: What are some reasons that your child doesn't eat school breakfast more often? Check all of the reasons that apply. Response options list 16 reasons plus NA - my child eats school breakfast every day or almost every day and a free response option for other. Total number of barriers selected will be summed. Those who report NA - my child eats school breakfast every day or almost every day will be coded as having 0 barriers. |
| Household food insecurity | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental report of household food insecurity. Assessed with 6 items (e.g., In the last month, were you ever hungry but didn't eat because there wasn't enough money for food?) Response options include no or yes; never true, sometimes true, or often true; only 1 or 2 days, some days but not every day, or almost every day. Responses of often or sometimes and yes are coded as affirmative (yes). Likewise, responses of almost every day and some days but not every day are coded as affirmative (yes). The sum of affirmative responses to the six questions in the module is the household's raw score on the scale. Household food security status is assigned as follows: Raw score 0-1-High or marginal food security Raw score 2-4-Low food security Raw score 5-6-Very low food security Analyses will dichotomize households into those with high or marginal food security and those with low or very low food security. |
| Child food insecurity | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental report of child food insecurity. Assessed with 8 items (e.g., In the last month, did you ever cut the size of your child's meals because there wasn't enough money for food?) Response options include no or yes; never true, sometimes true, or often true; only 1 or 2 days, some days but not every day, or almost every day. Responses of often or sometimes and yes are coded as affirmative (yes). Responses of almost every day and some days but not every day are coded as affirmative (yes). The sum of affirmative responses to the 8 questions in the module is the child's raw score on the scale. Child food security status is assigned as follows: Raw score 0-1-High or marginal food security among children; Raw score 2-4-Low food security among children; Raw score 5-8-Very low food security among children Analyses will dichotomize households into those with children with high or marginal food security or children with low or very low food security. |
| Perceived healthfulness of school lunch | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks. | Parental perception of the healthfulness of the lunches served at their child's school. Assessed with 1 item: How healthy or unhealthy are the school lunches at your child's school? Response options are on a 5-point scale ranging from Very unhealthy (1) to Very healthy (5). |
| Noticing the school meal campaign | Collected in a ~10 minute survey at 6 weeks. | Parental report of whether they noticed the school meal campaign. Assessed with 1 item: In the last 6 weeks, have you seen any messages or advertising on Facebook encouraging children to eat school lunch or school breakfast? Response options are yes (1) and no (0). |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed