Conversations With Caregivers About Health and Appearance

This clinical trial is evaluating the effects of a 2-hour, small group discussion with parents and caregivers of adolescents in Oregon. The investigators will evaluate whether parents'/caregivers' experience reductions in their disordered eating symptoms, mood symptoms, and parent-child relationship quality, relative to parent/caregiver participants in the wait list control. The investigators will also evaluate whether the children of these parents/caregivers experience improvements in their disordered eating and mood symptoms.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Depression; Parent-Child Relations; Disordered Eating Behaviors; Feeding Behaviors
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Parent Group Discussion

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 112
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Oregon
    • Eugene, Oregon, United States, 97405
      • University of Oregon

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion criteria for parent/caregiver:

• at least 18 years old
• the primary caregiver of at least one child 12-17 years old who lives with them at least 50% of the time
• living in the state of Oregon
• can read and understand English at the 6th grade level or higher
• access to internet and private space for zoom

Inclusion criteria for the child:

• 12-17 years of age
• can read and understand English at the 6th grade level or higher

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention; a single 2-hour, remote delivered interactive group parenting session	Behavioral: Parent Group Discussion; A 2-hour interactive parent group delivered to 5-10 parents via zoom; discuss weight bias and discrimination; brainstorm ways to respond in parent-child interactions involving health and appearance; and identify action steps.
No Intervention: Wait-list control; wait-list control group will receive the same intervention after data collection ends

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Parent/caregiver disordered eating symptoms	Disordered eating will be measured using the 36-item Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q)	baseline to 1-month
Parent-child feeding practices	Child feeding practices will be assessed using the modified Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ). The monitoring, restriction for weight, restriction for health, environment, modeling, and teaching about nutrition subscales (27-items) will be used. 4 responses on the measure are rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always), while the rest are rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (disagree) to 5 (agree).	baseline to 1-month
Parent/caregiver weight bias internalization	Weight bias internalization will be measured using the modified 10-item Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS-M). Responses on the measure are rated on a 7-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).	baseline to 1-month
Exercise avoidance	Exercise avoidance will be assessed using 2-items used in previous research (More et al., 2019). Responses on the measure are rated on a 7-point scale from 1 (not at all true) to 7 (completely true).	baseline to 1-month
Parent/caregiver self-compassion	Self-compassion will be assessed using the 12-item Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF). Responses on the measure are rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). Higher summed scores indicate greater self-compassion. The SCS-SF has near perfect correlation with the original 26-item Self-Compassion Scale.	baseline and 1-month
Parent/child body ideal internalization	Sociocultural attitudes towards appearance, including thin-ideal internalization, muscular-ideal internalization, and appearance-related pressures will be measured using three subscales from the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire Revised-3 (SATAQ-R). The Internalization-TV/Mag, Internalization-Athlete, and Internalization-Comparison subscales (13-items) subscales will be used. Responses on the measures are rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (definitely disagree) to 5 (definitely agree).	baseline and 1-month
Parent/caregiver stress	Parental stress will be measured using the 18-item Parental Stress Scale (PSS). Responses on the measure are rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).	baseline and 1-month
Parent/caregiver fat talk	Frequency of fat talk will be assessed using the 16-item Family Fat Talk Questionnaire. Responses on the measure are rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always).	baseline and 1-month
Parent/caregiver anti-fat attitudes	Anti-Fat attitude will be assessed using 3-items from the Willpower subscale of the Anti-Fat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA). Responses on the measure are rated on a 9-point scale from 0 (very strongly disagree) to 9 (very strongly agree).	baseline and 1-month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
child disordered eating symptoms	Disordered eating will be measured using the 36-item Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q).	baseline to 1-month
Parent-child relationship (child report)	Child perceived quality of relationship with parent will be measured using the 8-item Parent-Adolescent Relationship Scale. Three items on the measure are rated on a 5-point scale from 0 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree) while the other 5 items on the measure are rated on a 5-pooint scale from 0 (never) to 4 (always). This measure has been validated in an adolescent sample.	baseline to 1-month
child anti-fat bias	Anti-Fat attitude will be assessed using 3-items from the Willpower subscale of the Anti-Fat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA). Responses on the measure are rated on a 9-point scale from 0 (very strongly disagree) to 9 (very strongly agree). This measure has been validated in an adolescent sample.	baseline to 1-month
Child exercise avoidance	Exercise avoidance will be assessed using 2-items used in previous research (More et al,, 2019). Responses on the measure are rated on a 7-point scale from 1 (not at all true) to 7 (completely true).	baseline to 1-month
fat talk (child report of parent/caregiver)	Frequency of fat talk will be measured using the 14-item Fat Talk Questionnaire. Responses on the measure are rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Our team will make revisions to the language in the scale to replace gendered language with gender neutral language. This measure has been validated in adolescents 12 and up.	baseline and 1-month
child weight bias internalization	Weight bias internalization will be measured using the modified 10-item Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS-M). Responses on the measure are rated on a 7-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The measure has been validated in an adolescent sample.	baseline and 1-month
child body ideals internalizations	Sociocultural attitudes towards appearance, including thin-ideal internalization, muscular-ideal internalization, and appearance-related pressures will be measured using three subscales from the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire Revised-3 (SATAQ-R). The Internalization-TV/Mag, Internalization-Athlete, and Internalization-Comparison subscales (13-items) subscales will be used. Responses on the measures are rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (definitely disagree) to 5 (definitely agree). This measure has been validated in an adolescent sample.	baseline and 1-month
child self-compassion	Self-compassion will be assessed using the 17-item Self-Compassion Scale Youth Version (SCS-Youth). Responses on the measure are rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). Higher summed scores indicate greater self-compassion. The SCS-Youth has been validated in an adolescent sample.	baseline and 1-month

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Oregon

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 27, 2025
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 14, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 30, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 18, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): February 24, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 22, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 19, 2026
• Last Verified: April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Behavioral Symptoms; Feeding and Eating Disorders; Behavior; Behavior, Animal; Depression; Feeding Behavior; Disordered Eating Behavior
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00001483

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No