Promoting Child Inhibitory Control Skills Around Food (CHIC Play)

February 2, 2016 updated by: Kay Rhee, University of California, San Diego
Today's environment provides many hedonic stimuli that promote consumption of unhealthy energy-dense snack foods. It is widely recognized that a systems approach is required to deal with this complex problem. However, individuals, particularly children, also need to develop the personal capacity to deal with tempting stimuli and inhibit responses to these energy-dense foods. Therefore in this proposal, we will focus on enhancing higher level executive functions, particularly inhibitory control, which is needed to counterbalance impulsive behavior and is crucial for growth and development. We have chosen to focus on developing inhibitory control in preschool-age children because executive functioning/inhibitory control and eating habits are developing at this time. Among preschool-age children, inhibitory control is fostered through social play-based curriculums and has been found to be related to greater school readiness and academic skills. Therefore, the goal of this proposal is to adapt a play-based curriculum, the Tools of the Mind program, to promote greater inhibitory control skills in preschool children and decrease consumption of energy-dense snack foods. In Phase I, we will develop and pilot a Child Inhibitory Control Play-based Program (CHIC Play) among children age 4- to 6-years old. We will adapt the learning tools used in the Tools of the Mind curriculum and employ naturalistic play scenarios, drawings (visual support), and games to teach children to inhibit their responses to energy-dense snack foods. Once developed, we will test the efficacy of CHIC Play in the preschool setting. Parent groups will also be conducted to support the adoption of these skills at home. The primary outcome of interest is caloric intake and age- and gender-adjusted percent of daily caloric intake as measured by the Eating in the Absence of Hunger (EAH) free access procedure and a snack time procedure. Inhibitory control skills will also be measured using executive functioning tasks. Feasibility and acceptability of this program will be determined from parent, child, and teacher surveys. The purpose of this study is to develop a new innovative method of decreasing energy-dense snack food consumption by promoting the development of inhibitory control or impulse control. If successful, this program has the potential to play a role in the treatment and prevention of childhood obesity.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

72

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • San Diego, California, United States, 92093
        • University of California, San Diego

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

4 years to 6 years (CHILD)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 1) child age between 4 and 6 years
  • 2) child BMI ≥5th %ile (Children below this BMI percentile may have an underlying biological mechanism that influences eating behaviors.)
  • 3) active parental consent

Exclusion Criteria:

  • 1) child with major psychological diagnosis, developmental delay, or other medical disorder that affects weight, eating behaviors, and cognition
  • 2) food allergies to the foods used in the study
  • 3) plans to leave the preschool within the timeframe of the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: CHild Inhibitory Control Play (CHIC) Play
CHIC Play paradigm: Children will exposed to several play paradigms that enhance inhibitory control around snack foods. Children will receive the intervention in the preschool setting over a 3 week period.
Behavioral: CHild Inhibitory Control (CHIC) Play
CHIC Play paradigm: Children will exposed to several play paradigms that enhance inhibitory control around snack foods. Children will receive the intervention in the preschool setting over a 3 week period.
Other Names:
  • Inhibitory control training
  • Executive functioning training
  • Tools of the Mind Curriculum
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Attention control
Children will receive information regarding other healthy behaviors: brushing teeth, sunscreen use, being physically active
Behavioral: Attention control
Children will receive an equal amount of time with the RA, but focus on other healthy behaviors and not use inhibitory control skills training techniques
Other Names:
  • Control group

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Caloric intake in the Eating in the Absence of Hunger (EAH) paradigm
Time Frame: week 4
Eating in the Absence of Hunger paradigm: Children in the full state will be presented with 8 snack foods and allowed to eat ad libitum for 10 minutes. Caloric intake and age- and gender-adjusted percent of daily caloric intake will be assessed.
week 4

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Executive functioning
Time Frame: week 4
Several tasks of Executive functioning will be assessed including a go/no-go task, backward digit span, and delay of gratification
week 4

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
BRIEF
Time Frame: week 4
Parents will be asked to report on their child's executive functioning ability using the BRIEF (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning)
week 4

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of California, San Diego

Collaborators

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

June 1, 2014

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

November 1, 2015

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

November 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 27, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 28, 2014

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

March 4, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE)

February 3, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 2, 2016

Last Verified

February 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HD074987

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Obesity

Clinical Trials on CHild Inhibitory Control (CHIC) Play

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Netherlands

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe