"Samen Happie!" An mHealth intervention to prevent obesity through parenting

INTERVENTION: Parents will be randomly assigned to either the intervention condition or the control condition. Parents in the control condition will receive a mobile application through which they can learn about specific healthy parenting practices and a general healthy authoritarian parenting style. The information will be presented through short and simple fact cards, practical tips, and quizzes. Moreover, in the app parents can actually practice healthy parenting practices and ‐styles through various challenges (e.g., based on implementation intentions). The information in the app is grouped into four important determinants for healthy development, namely eating, drinking, sleeping, and exercise, and adjusted to the age of the child. The textual information in the app is short, simply formulated, and visually supported. For the most important information a movie clip with a voice‐over is available. Moreover, the app tries to target common barriers to healthy parenting for low‐SES parents (e.g., stress and financial worries) by offering, for example, relaxation exercises and cheap, simple recipes. Parents in the control condition will receive the mobile application after the intervention period (waitlist‐control condition). CONDITION: Overweight, Obesity ; ; PRIMARY OUTCOME: 1. Outcome name: child antropometric characteristics (i.e., length and weight) measured via child health care centres (self‐reported by parents or collected directly through, used to calculate body ass index (BMI, measured in kg/m2) ; ; Timepoints: baseline, 6 months, 12 months (and possibly additional timepoints up to 4 years, depending on the timing of the measurements at the health care centres) SECONDARY OUTCOME: 2. Outcome name: parental parenting practices with respect to child weight‐related behaviours (eating, drinking, sleeping, physical activity/screen time) ; ; Timepoints: baseline, 6 months, 12 months ; ; 3. Outcome name: weight‐related behaviours of the child (including healthy eating, drinking, sleeping, and exercise) ; ; Timepoints: baseline, 6 months, 12 months ; ; 4. Outcome name: general parenting style ; ; Timepoints: baseline, 6 months, 12 months ; ; 5. Parental wellbeing (e.g., including depression, self‐reported health, happiness) ; ; Timepoints: baseline, 6 months, 12 months ; ; 6. Parental cognitions (e.g., including parenting related self‐efficacy and motivation) ; ; Timepoints: baseline, 6 months, 12 months ; ; INCLUSION CRITERIA: Parent‐child dyads are eligible for participation when parents have a child aged 7‐to‐11‐months old at the time of the baseline measurement. We identified this age range as a critical period for intervention onset, as it appeared from focus groups that we conducted that this is the phase in which most parents start to offer their child additional foods and drinks, alongside milk. Moreover, to parents should have a low (i.e., no education, primary school, or preporatory vocational education) or medium (i.e., vocational education) level educational attainment. We use educational attainment as a proxy for socio‐economic status (SES). In total, we strive to include 60% parents with low and 40% parents with medium level SES.