Project F-EAT

(Families and Eating and Activity in Teens)

Project F-EAT is an ancillary study to EAT 2010 (Eating and Activity in Teens) designed to examine influences within the family and home environment on eating, physical activity, and weight-related behaviors of adolescents.   Project F-EAT surveys were completed by a sample of approximately 3,700 parents or guardians of the adolescents enrolled in EAT 2010.  Adolescents participants in the EAT 2010 study were asked to identify up to two parents or guardians. Parents were invited to complete the survey via mail or over the telephone and a response rate of 79% was achieved.  To meet the needs of this culturally diverse group of parents, both the mailed and telephone survey were available in English, Spanish, Hmong, and Somali and the telephone survey was additionally offered in Oromo, Amharic and Karen. 

Objectives

Project F-EAT (Families and Eating and Activity in Teens) will improve our understanding of how the family and home environment influence the eating, physical activity, and weight-related behaviors of young people.

Research questions to be addressed by Project F-EAT are:

• How do parents of adolescents describe their family and home with regard to weight culture (for example; parental weight control, parental body image, weight teasing, etc.) and the food and physical activity environments, and what are the associations with adolescents’ weight status, body image, weight control practices, dietary intake, and physical activity?
• How do parental reports of the familial and home environment, and associations with adolescent eating, physical activity, and weight-related outcomes differ across ethnicity/race, socioeconomic status, age of adolescent, gender of adolescent and parent, and weight status of adolescent and parent?
• How does the familial and home environment interact with adolescents’ individual characteristics (for example, body image, weight control behaviors, etc.), and peer, school, and neighborhood environments, to predict adolescent eating, physical activity, and weight-related outcomes?
• What have been the 10-year secular trends from 1999-2009 in parental reports of weight culture and food and physical activity environments within adolescents’ homes?

Research Design

To address the Project F-EAT objectives, the parents (or other caregivers) of adolescents participating in Project EAT-III are being asked to complete a survey by mail or phone.

• The Project F-EAT survey was developed by a multi-disciplinary research team.  An ecological framework developed by the research team was used to guide survey development. Each section of the survey was reviewed by a member of a review panel with an expertise in that content area.  Finally, the survey was pilot tested with focus groups parents of adolescents.
• Invitations to complete the Project F-EAT survey are being mailed to the home address of parents, including up to two parents for each teenager participating in Project EAT-III. If a mailed survey is not returned, parents are also invited to complete the Project F-EAT survey over the telephone.
• Mailed surveys and telephone interviews were translated into English, Spanish, Hmong, and Somali. Parents are being mailed surveys in the language their teenager indicates is primarily spoken at home.   

Additional details about the Project F-EAT Survey are posted online.