Incorporating a Component into CATCH to Reduce Children’s Television Viewing

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: University of Texas Prevention Research Center

Topics:
Nutrition & Physical Activity for Youth | School Health

To reduce television viewing among elementary school students, researchers are developing an addition to the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) program. CATCH TV will promote indoor and outdoor physical activities, help students budget their television time, encourage eating of healthy snacks, teach parents how to reduce children’s television viewing and video game playing at home, and promote family physical activity and healthy eating. In developing CATCH TV, researchers will conduct focus groups and interviews with elementary school children, parents, teachers, and school administrators. In the second year of the project, CATCH TV will be pilot tested in four schools (160 students) currently implementing the CATCH program effectively, and results will be compared with those for four schools (160 students) that are optimally implementing CATCH only. Teachers will be trained in two 4-hour sessions before the start of the pilot test and given monetary compensation. A two-hour booster session for teachers will be offered midway through the school year. After modifying CATCH TV according to the pilot test results, a second pilot test will be conducted in the same eight elementary schools in the third year of the project. The project will be evaluated to determine the intervention’s effectiveness in reducing television viewing and use of electronic entertainment, preventing unhealthy weight gain, and improving the diet and physical activity level of elementary school aged children. If CATCH TV is shown to be effective, it will be revised and disseminated to schools already implementing CATCH and offered to other schools as well.

 

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