Introduction
Method
Participants
Ethics
Procedures and data collection
Program description
Data analysis
Results
Program experiences and perceptions
Theme | Exemplar Meaning Unit |
---|---|
Support | “A lot of the kids that are there, are there for the same reasons. My child was able to understand what they’re all going through, so he was doing the same stuff, like eating habits, exercises, stuff like that, and it just gave them something to do together.” (peer-to-peer support) “I made a lot of new friends here. It was really fun” (peer-to-peer support) (child) “The children were happy. The instructors were supportive… they also take your concerns and help you along. The information was great—for the children to hear it from the group leaders, I think it hits home a lot better.” (top-down support) “I feel like it’ll be better to know if we were doing well, so, like, if they kept telling us if we were doing well or all that, then it’ll make us more motivated.” (desired top-down support) (child) “Those instructors were great, they supported us every time, they are so patient for the kids.” (top-down support) “I think the teachers were really good. They tried really hard to keep the kids focused.” (top-down support) |
Structure & Content | “what I really liked was that there was so much visual stuff. They did this whole experiment, like how much fat is in M&M’s… I hardly ever eat M&M’s anymore. It’s all the visual stuff for the kids, it’s just brilliant. Rather than just saying you shouldn’t eat this, it was just really visual and it was awesome. Sugar was put in your faces to see how much fat was in that product, that was visual. It was a good thing.” (practical, interactive elements) “We learned. We learned to eat food in moderation, to check and know how much fat and sodium and stuff’s in the food that we buy from the shops.” (appropriate educational material) “We did learn so much about food, what’s good, what’s not, there was lots of information. Finding out stuff that I didn’t expect to find out, that stuff, the food had extra sugar that was hidden and stuff like that, so I found it really good.” (appropriate educational material) (child) “If he had a choice to join in [with the physical activity], he would have enjoyed it more, not like it’s a case of ‘you have to do that.’ I felt like it was a little bit forced upon him.” (enjoyment) |
Support
Similarity to peers
Instructor characteristics
Structure & content
Interactive components to develop competence
Novel educational resources
Variety and a sense of autonomy
Adherence to lifestyle changes post-program
Theme | Exemplar Meaning Unit |
---|---|
Diet (Success) | “The way I cook now, I reduce the amount of oil in cooking, reduce what they call it, the portion or the size.” (generally healthier choices) “I used to bring full cream milk, you know, for the small kids. Now I’m just bringing low fat. I used to bring white bread and whole meal, now I’m bringing the whole meal only. I don’t bring white bread at all.” “He still has snacks but now, he has different snacks, like fruit salad with yogurt, and he likes it.” “They are looking for more vegetables instead now, and eating more vegetables now.” “I started drinking a lot more water instead of lemonade.” “I know I always feel hungry at night, so I now normally eat apples. Before that I always had cookies but now I don’t.” (healthier substitutions) “If I like see a packet of chips, I turn it around, and then see the nutrition label. For chips, I look at the salt, and then for like lollies, it’s like sugar, I really just look for everything, cause they’re full of everything. (nutrition resources, tip, and skills) (child) “Things like how to cut down on carbs, and we learnt how to read the labels, and even still to this day, they still do it. With my son, he’s become very observant. When we go shopping he’s like, “Ma, this is not good, it’s got that much sugar”. He’s just more conscious now, and he goes through the labels.” (nutrition resources, tips, and skills) |
Diet (Challenges) | “We made a bit of a WhatsApp group for sharing ideas, which we haven’t actually connected, we were going to, but I suppose everyone got busy. We have got a Facebook group now, but we haven’t really talked during this holiday, probably cause everyone’s away or something.” (conflicting priorities) |
Physical Activity (Success) | “The program gave us these pamphlets with different things you could do. Crossfit was one of them. So, I’m doing Crossfit once a week now.” “I was allowed to ride to school afterwards, and at first, I took the short way, but now, I always go the long way.” (continued positive attitudes and engagement) |
Physical Activity (Challenges) | “I think it’s [physical activity] dropped off, because in the program we were setting goals, like their physical activity goal every week. It was set up from the start and you had to do it for about a month, so they were pushing. Now that’s gone, my son doesn’t do that anymore.” (loss of structure) “The problem is like, we give excuses, I’m busy, I’ve got something, I can’t do it today, today I’m tired, always making excuses.” (loss of structure) “Like mixed martial arts, self-defence physical activity, you do your own stuff, and you never get kids get left out. They do stuff together, but no kids get left out because they’re the slowest or fattest or shortest or tallest. That worked for us, we don’t feel like he’s getting left out, where in soccer and stuff they get left out. It’s about finding something that they want to do, and enjoy, get accepted. If groups were more inclusive, that would be good.” (stigma / exclusion in community activity) “Some of the community sports are too expensive. We have 3 kids, and it’s too expensive to put them in there.” (cost) |
Diet
Healthier dietary choices
Resources and goal setting
Conflicting priorities and financial costs
Physical activity
Habit formation
Lack of motivation and structure
Stigma and ostracism
Financial constraints
Program Recommendations
Theme | Exemplar Meaning Unit |
---|---|
In-program Recommendations | “Maybe do these programs over a longer period of time, because you always fall off once you’ve finished. So maybe extending them would be good.” (intervention length) “The children want to exercise, they want to move, they don’t want to sit down and listen. More activity-based things could be more engaging.” (intervention content) “The younger ones are seven to nine, they’ve got a really short attention span, so it was quite long, after a day at school, to come in and do the program. The older ones, sort of, are more aware of the impact of having a weight issue, it’s more obvious to a nine to eleven maybe, or a nine to thirteen.” (grouping considerations) |
Post-program Recommendations | “I think regular height and weight checks once a month, every two months maybe… I think that’s really important for the children and even the parents… and they can talk for ten to twenty minutes about what they’ve been doing different.” (maintaining connections – program) “Call and speak to the child… ‘hey, how’re you going, what sport are you doing now, how’s school going?’ And, you might be able… to keep them on track, like a long-term thing after the program.” (maintaining connections – program) “After the group finishes, maybe if there was somebody who could still do like the activity side, even just an hour a day or an hour a week. If we could do that for the rest of the year, it’d really get them motivated and going, then maybe that would help.” (maintaining connections – program) “It’d be nice to have sessions every now and then, get them back together again. I think, like an email chat, just send the children an email, how you going, that kind of thing.” (maintaining connections – program) “I think an app, like most people have smartphones, so an app would certainly keep me on track.” (maintaining connections – other participants) “I know HBF do these fitness sessions. How about something like that from the program for the kids in certain areas? I think that would be really great, because then it’ll be engaging for the kids, and they really want to be a part of it. I think something like that would be really good.” (maintaining connections – program and other participants) |