Funded Projects

Growth and Development: Dissemination Plan

Grantee: University of Maryland School of Medicine
Principal Investigator: Maureen Black
Project Number: R40MC04297
Project Date: 01/01/2005

Final Report

Growth and Development: Dissemination Plan Final Report (PDF)

Age group(s)

• Adolescence (12-18 years)

Targeted/Underserved Population

• African American

Abstract

This project is a Competing Extension of a randomized trial of a health promotion/overweight prevention program conducted among low-income, urban, African American adolescents (MCH R40MC00241). The existing project, entitled Challenge! Project, includes 248 adolescents randomized to intervention or control and followed for 18 months. The multi-level intervention, based on developmental-ecological and social cognitive theory, includes a mentorship model in which the intervention adolescents receive a personal trainer/mentor who meets with them individually in home and community sites to administer the 12-session curriculum and to help the adolescents learn to establish challenges for themselves related to dietary and physical activity goals. The curriculum, based on extensive formative research, is action oriented--each session includes healthy food, physical activity, review of the adolescents' progress on the previous session's challenges, and new challenges for the subsequent week. Preliminary results from the 6-month evaluation are encouraging, suggesting that, in comparison with control adolescents, intervention adolescents eat more fruit, attain more dietary goals, are more physically active, and gain less weight. This application disseminates and extends the empirically supported nutritional and physical activity intervention further into the community by ensuring that the curriculum can be delivered in individual or group format, developing intervention and evaluation materials that can be disseminated, developing resources to conduct training, and conducting process evaluations in three community agencies.

Publications

Listed is descending order by year published.

Black MM, Hager ER, Le K, Anliker J, Arteaga SS, Diclemente C, Gittelsohn J, Magder L, Papas M, Snitker S, Treuth MS, Wang Y. Challenge! Health promotion/obesity prevention mentorship model among urban, black adolescents. Pediatrics. 2010 Aug;126(2):280-288.

Black MM, Dubowitz H, Krishnakumar A, Starr RH Jr. Early intervention and recovery among children with failure to thrive: follow-up at age 8. Pediatrics. 2007 Jul;120(1):59-69.

Mitola AL, Papas MA, Le K, Fusillo L, Black MM. Agreement with satisfaction in adolescent body size between female caregivers and teens from a low-income African American community. J Pediatr Psychol. 2007 Jan-Feb;32(1):42-51.

Snitker S, Le KY, Hager E, Caballero B, Black MM. Association of physical activity and body composition with insulin sensitivity in a community sample of adolescents. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007 Jul;161(7):677-683.

Black MM, Bentley ME, Papas MA, Oberlander S, Teti LO, McNary S, et al. Delaying second births among adolescent mothers: a randomized, controlled trial of a home-based mentoring program. Pediatrics. 2006 Oct;118(4):e1087-e1099.

Black MM, Papas MA, Bentley ME, Cureton P, Saunders A, Le K, et al. Overweight adolescent African-American mothers gain weight in spite of intentions to lose weight. J Am Diet Assoc. 2006 Jan;106(1):80-87.

Manikam R, Black MM. Childhood feeding disorders. In: Fisher CB, Lerner RM, eds. Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science. Vol 1. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 2005:461-463.