Latino fathers promoting healthy youth behaviors

The project

The Latino Fathers Promoting Healthy Youth Behaviors project aims to prevent obesity among Latino adolescents by engaging families, especially fathers or other male caregivers in the household (foster parents, uncles, grandparents, or older brothers), and their child (10–14 years old) in a culturally- and linguistically-appropriate prevention program.

The approach

This project adopts a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. Extension staff will actively partner with community organizations serving Latino populations in both urban and rural areas in Minnesota. All stakeholders will contribute to developing a community-based obesity prevention curriculum for Latino families.

The curriculum will be adapted from an evidence-based parenting curriculum titled Padres Informados, Jóvenes Preparados. This eight-week program has shown to be effective in improving Latino parenting practices for preventing youth substance abuse. See peer-reviewed publications about the curriculum here: Padres Informados.

The adapted program will focus on improving youth energy balance-related behaviors by increasing parent involvement in positive parenting practices. The positive parenting practices include providing supporting environment for healthy eating and physical activity, setting expectations, and role modeling. The energy balance-related behaviors include the following activities.

• Consuming fruits and vegetables, sugary drinks, sweets and salty snacks, and fast foods.
• Participating in family meals.
• Engaging in physical activity and screen time.

The timeline

This five-year grant started in March 2016 and will continue until February 2021.

Years 1–2

• Convene Stakeholder Advisory Team.
• Adapt, pretest, and revise curriculum.
• Develop program evaluation protocols.

Years 2–4

• Implement programs at community sites.

Year 5

• Analyze program outcomes.
• Report findings to stakeholders.