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To address the disproportionate rates of obesity among Latino youth, the ��ɫ���� Center has begun implementing the Eat, Play, Go! Integrated Transdisciplinary Research, Education, and Extension Project to Prevent Latino Youth Obesity. The Eat, Play, Go! Project is a youth-focused, family-based intervention to address individual as well as parenting behaviors, and the family/home environment that may place Latino youth at increased risk for overweight and obesity.

The overall goal of the Eat, Play, Go! project is to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Latino youth ages 10-13 years by developing and implementing an innovative program to improve eating patterns and healthy lifestyles. The project goals will be carried out by implementing a culturally tailored curriculum for Latino youth based on prior research and the Social Cognitive Theory.

The Eat, Play Go! Project has enlisted a Community Advisory Board and community members to inform the development of the project curriculum.  A total of 174 youth and their parents will be recruited to participate in the study which includes four health promotion sessions for parents and youth as well as booster sessions delivered through zoom/telephone and text messages. Eat, Play, Go! intervention activities will be implemented by a community health worker and students trained in community-engaged research.

Student Research Fellowship

Undergraduate and graduate students will have the opportunity to apply for an experiential learning fellowship. A total of 12 students (6 undergraduate and 6 graduate) from the departments of Nutrition, Health Science, and Kinesiology at ��ɫ���� will be trained in community-engaged research.

Orientation and training will be provided to selected research fellows to understand the contexts wherein nutrition and health related decisions and behaviors occur; followed by experiential, hands-on learning via community-engaged research with faculty and staff.

Student Selection Criteria

1. Must be enrolled ��ɫ���� student during 10-month fellowship

Program Activities

The Eat, Play, Go! integrative project will implement activities under three categories: Research, Education, and Extension. The following are the activities that will take place:

1. Planning and Design Focus Groups (Extension): Various stakeholders will engage in the planning and design of the Eat, Play, Go! intervention via focus groups.
2. Pilot Panel Focus Groups (Extension): Initial focus group participants will be invited to participate in the panel focus groups to pilot the Eat, Play, Go! intervention with feedback incorporated from the initial focus groups.
3. Eat, Play, Go! Intervention (Extension): It is comprised of four, 2-hour weekly group sessions and two, 15-minute telephone booster sessions followed by reinforcement through weekly text messaging.
4. Recruitment Procedures (Research and Extension): Convenience and snowball sampling will be used to recruit 174 Latino families with youth between the ages of 10-13 years
5. Stakeholders (Extension): A group of committed stakeholders has been invited to form part of a Community Advisory Board. A Community Health Worker will inform the design and carryout the intervention alongside trained research fellows.
6. Student Research Fellows (Education): Cohorts of paired undergraduate and graduate students will be recruited from the departments of nutrition, health science, and kinesiology at ��ɫ����