Ashley Noble

Honors in Psychology

Majors: Psychology

Supervisors: Simone Nguyen, Psychology

Development of a Theory-Based Intervention to Teach Children about Health: A 5-month Follow-up

The present study examined the long term effectiveness of a theory-based intervention in increasing children's understanding and preference for healthy foods and exercise. It is hypothesized that providing information to children that is theory-based will improve their memory of the information. The methods involved a pre-test/intervention/post-test design, and included a 5 month follow-up. The participants were randomly assigned into one of three conditions: theory group; non-theory group; and control group. The only difference between the conditions was the type of intervention received. Children in the theory group received an intervention that included coherent and causally-related information. Children in the non-theory group received an intervention that did not include coherent and causally-related information. Children in the control group did not receive an intervention. The children received a pre-test, followed by an intervention and a post-test an average of 4 days later. A follow-up, the focus of my honors thesis, examined performance over time, with children receiving the post-test again an average of 5.2 months later. The pre-test, post-test, and follow-up consisted of the same three types of questions: 1) General classification questions about vegetables, high-fat foods, exercises, and non-exercises; 2) Specific classification questions about specific foods and activities; 3) Preference questions about specific foods and activities. The follow-up study revealed that children who received a theory-based intervention retained the information learned over a 5 month period. Overall, these results suggest that theory-based interventions are effective in increasing children’s understanding of healthy behaviors, and could be used to educate children about health at a young age.