An important research partner to The Fatherhood Project, Dr. Kirsten Davison of the Harvard School of Public Health is conducting an innovative research project, “What About Dads?” Including Dads in mealtime, diet regulation and obesity prevention for their children. The Fatherhood Project is collaborating with Dr. Davison in applying for a 5-year, $5 million grant to study fathers contributions to obesity prevention. We will continue to check-in with Dr. Davison as the study progresses. This marks the end of Obesity Prevention Awareness Month…
TFP: Dr. Davison, can you give us a brief overview of your current research project, “What About Dads?”
Dr. Davison: What about Dads? is a research study that will identify and test strategies to increase fathers’ involvement in research on children’s health. We are particularly interested in their participation in research on the prevention of obesity in children. Research shows that families play an important role in children’s nutrition and physical activity. However, this research has largely excluded the role fathers have in this dynamic.
Fathers are rarely included in studies on child nutrition and physical activity or in studies that test family programs to prevent or treat childhood obesity. Even when fathers are included, they typically only make up a very small fraction of the research participants. As a result, we know very little about fathers’ involvement in feeding their children, their feeding goals, or the strategies they use relating to healthy eating. We also have not explored, in detail, the approaches fathers take to encourage physical activity and minimize their children’s screen.
The under-representation of fathers in research fuels the belief that fathers do not matter when it comes to the prevention of obesity and the promotion of healthy lifestyles in children. It also limits the amount of father-specific information available to help guide the design of supportive family programs that encourage healthy lifestyles among all family members.
In What about Dads? we ask fathers to share their perspective on what it will take to get them involved in child health research. We also collect preliminary information on their role in feeding children and encouraging physical activity. We intend that this research study will open the door to future research on fathering and childhood obesity prevention.
TFP: Thank you! We look forward to hearing more about “What About Dads?” as the study progresses!
About Kirsten Davison, PhD, and Her Team
Kirsten Davison is an Associate Professor of Nutrition and Director of the Public Health Nutrition concentration at the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed her PhD at the Pennsylvania State University in Child and Family Development. Her research focuses on family and community contributions to child obesity and the development of sustainable obesity prevention programs. Studies to date have examined familial clustering of risk behaviors linked with accelerated weight gain in children, psychosocial consequences of obesity in children, parenting strategies that promote active lifestyles in children, and developmental and contextual factors that explain declines in adolescent girls’ physical activity. Most recently, her research has focused on family-centered interventions to prevent child obesity in low-income populations. These interventions, which have been implemented in WIC and Head Start settings, are based on the principals of community-based participatory research and were developed, implemented and evaluated in collaboration with parents. Current projects focus on parenting around children’s snack food intake, strategies to engage fathers in obesity prevention programs and research, and a large scale community intervention integrating evidence-based programs in multiple sectors (WIC, childcare, schools, after-school programs and community health centers).
Jo Charles is a research assistant at the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. A native Bostonian, he received his B.S in Economics from Northeastern University. Jo Charles works on several studies examining familial and environmental factors on child health and child obesity prevention. As part of the What About Dads? research team since 2013, he has been investigating how to better engage fathers in the discourse around child health and feeding practices. Jo Charles is currently applying to PhD programs, with an interest in researching systematic inequities relating to public health nutrition.
Neha Khandpur, MA, is a doctoral student in the Public Health Nutrition program, at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). She completed her Master’s degree at the University of Bristol in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Public Health. Neha’s research broadly focuses on studying the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases. In the past, she has been involved in several maternal and child health, nutrition and physical activity related research projects. She is currently affiliated with the Psychology of Eating & Consumer Health Lab at HSPH where she is looking at the effect of nutrition labeling on consumer understanding. As the co-investigator of the What About Dads? study, Neha is also examining family level factors that affect childhood obesity, particularly the influence of the father.