Current Project Descriptions
Structure & Well-Being
We have several projects underway to consider the value of structure on health and well-being. Most notably, this work focuses on summertime weight gain. Despite traditional notions of the summer months as a highly active time for youth, children’s weight gain appears to accelerate over the summer. Data on this phenomenon, though, are limited to only a handful of studies of the early elementary years. There is a need for more research addressing this “summertime slide” among youth of varying ages and locations (e.g., urban versus rural settings) as well as a careful examination of contributing factors to summertime weight gain. We have recently submitted a meta-analysis of weight gain during school year for those not receiving school-based interventions, and are currently working with ECLS-K data to address questions regarding the value of structure on health and well-being. Other projects examining the value of structure have focused on the transition to college as well as the family home environment. As part of the FOOD CUES study, we utilized daily diary methods to capture information regarding the timing of various health behaviors (i.e. sleeping, eating, and physical activity). Consistent timing of health behaviors from day to day may assist the body in productive energy metabolism by entraining health behaviors (e.g., eating) to internal mechanisms (e.g., metabolic functioning) often associated with weight related outcomes. In addition, we are collaborating with Dr. Edith Chen at Northwestern University to collect data on the physiological consequences of out-of-school time use in a study of low-income African American youth (ages 14-21) and the costs of striving to succeed.
Data collection
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Recruiting participants for the Active Summers Matter Study
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Data collection
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Life Interrupted: Family Routines and Youth Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Activity Matters Lab is investigating how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced daily routines and structure in families. We have launched a new study utilizing Amazon Mechanical Turk to understand the impact of this unprecedented event on family’s behavioral routines and how those routines influence child and family well-being. Parents answered a series of questions related to demographic information, household routines, COVID-19 related stressors as well as family functioning and children’s physical and psychological well-being.
Fluctuations in Weight-Related Behaviors Across the Adolescent Transition (E-Sleep)
Adolescence is a time of increased health-compromising behaviors and weight gain especially in girls. Puberty is a key transition of adolescence which offers a “window of opportunity” for health promotion. For girls, the onset of menstruation (i.e., menarche) is a defining pubertal event associated with changes in fat mass and weight gain. Despite the increased risk of weight gain at this time, there is a critical gap in the science as to what changes in sleep and physical activity (PA) occur across menarche and whether these changes relate to weight gain. A key premise of this study is that weight-related behaviors are particularly relevant to weight gain during this developmental transition due to the significant biological and psychological changes that characterize menarche. The study of these two behaviors (sleep and PA) across menarche will provide key insights into our understanding of determinants of health behaviors and weight gain during a developmental period that is critical for establishing lifelong health. The goals of this study are to use self-report as well as objective measures of sleep and physical activity to address key gaps in our understanding of sleep variability and weight outcomes across the menarchal transition by examining changes in two weight-related behaviors (sleep and physical activity) across the menarchal transition and testing bi-directional associations between these two behaviors and zBMI and BMI change. Defining how sleep changes across adolescence has transdiagnostic implications for understanding patterns of individual risk in relation to health outcomes for youth more broadly. This is a collaboration built off the NIH-funded EMPATHY project at Northshore University Health systems.
FOOD CUES
Although the causes of obesity are multifaceted, regular consumption of energy dense, nutrient poor food likely contributes to the problem. As such, the widespread marketing of such food is a growing concern. Recent estimates suggest that the food industry spends close to $2 billion each year on marketing to young people alone, mostly for foods that are high in fat, sugar, and sodium. Although research suggests that exposure to unhealthy food marketing is associated with greater consumption of unhealthy foods, one popular argument is that individuals should resist such advertising by exercising more personal responsibility over what they eat. However, what if resisting unhealthy food advertising actually impacts an individual’s ability to self-regulate? The FOOD CUES study sought to answer this question. In collaboration with Dr. Becky Silton’s WELL lab, the FOOD CUES study investigated the impact that unhealthy food commercials had on self-regulation in a young adult population via a lab-based study. FOOD CUES was a multi-method study using both EEG and neuropsychological measures to measure self-regulation. We were also interested in how individual differences (e.g., engaging in disordered eating) are associated with response to commercials. We are currently cleaning and analyzing data collected from this study, which completed data collection in 2019.
Space to Grow (STG)
We teamed up with the Healthy Schools Campaign to evaluate their Space to Grow initiative. Space to Grow (STG) transforms schoolyards of selected Chicago Public Schools (CPS) into vibrant green spaces that meet the unique needs and visions of their respective schools and communities. Along with colleagues at the University of California Nutrition Policy Institute, we evaluated five STG schoolyard transformations at CPS schools around Chicago. This project supported the scaling up of the STG initiative and informed the broader public health, education, public policy and green infrastructure communities about the benefits of investing in schools and the built environment. The specific aims of the STG evaluation project were to assess the impact of the schoolyard redesign on 1) utilization and characteristics of the schoolyard, 2) changes in students’ health, well-being, and academic outcomes, 3) changes in the school environment, and 4) changes in school-community engagement and cohesion. To carry out these aims, we evaluated the schoolyard planning and design process, as well as collected pre- and post-transformation data using observational Behavioral Mapping techniques, survey data from parents, teachers, school administrators and community members, and school-level data on attendance, attrition, health and wellness variables, and disciplinary action. We are currently processing these data and writing publications and a policy brief.
Training on Behavioral Mapping methodology with Professor Robin Moore at NC State
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Collecting Behavioral Mapping data on one of the redesigned Space to Grow schoolyards
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Girls in the Game (GIG)
We are greatly interested in applying our work to programming and policy, and we are able to do so through our role as research coordinators for Girls in the Game, a Chicago-based non-profit organization. Girls in the Game aims to improve the health and wellbeing of girls through sports and fitness, health education, and leadership development. For the past decade, we have assisted GIG in preparing two grant applications and have been the principal investigator of effectiveness studies of the after-school program. We will continue to collect data on the effects of GIG after-school programming on youth and adolescents.
Collaborations
CASA Lab
We have joined forces with Dr. Catherine Santiago’s CASA (Children Adapting to Stress and Adversity) Lab on their project, “Protective processes among immigrant families: The impact of family coping on Mexican-origin children.” This project will examine the role of family coping in protecting children against immigration stress by promoting positive mental health and the development of adaptive child coping among Mexican-origin families. In particular, our lab is interested in factors related to obesity among these families, including sleep and stress, given the disproportionate rate of obesity among Mexican immigrants to the United States and given that Mexico’s obesity rate recently surpassed that of the United States. See the CASA Lab website for more information: http://casalabluc.weebly.com/
Past Projects
Study of Teen Adjustment in Affluent Communities (STAAC)
Only in the last ten years have researchers begun to acknowledge that adolescents from affluent families are vulnerable to a unique set of adjustment problems. STAAC aimed to investigate levels of anxiety, depression, substance use, and satisfaction with life in affluent youth. Specifically, we examined the impact of perfectionism, ideas about success, parental pressure, school competition, and organized activity involvement on these adjustment outcomes. As proposed in the over-scheduling hypothesis, affluent youth may often be over-involved to such a degree that they suffer from stress-related problems. Participants were recruited from affluent suburbs of Boston, New York, and Chicago. Results from this work have been presented at several international conferences. To date, several manuscripts have been published from these data (see Publications and Presentations page). Most notably, this work has led to the development of a new measure, the 10-item Effortless Perfectionism Scale. Effortless perfection (EP) is a phenomenon referenced in popular culture, but had yet to be validated empirically. In addition to conceptualizing and discussing the theoretical underpinnings of EP, we established the psychometric properties of this scale in a paper in Psychological Assessment.
Nutri-Plate
Another interdisciplinary project that Activity Matters lab has worked on focused on is developing and evaluating nutritionally-designed diningware plates (i.e., Nutri-plate) on adolescents’ food choices. This project was supported by a seed grant from the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC). Results from this pilot study were published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior in 2010 and the Nutri-plate is currently available for purchase as www.Nutri-plate.com.
Dr. Bohnert takes the Nutri-Plate to Washington DC.
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A group of children helps create the idea for the Nutri-Plate.
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Healthy Adjustment in Teens Study (HATS)
While there is a wealth of research on adjustment difficulties of high functioning youth with autism spectrum disorders, less is known about the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence adjustment. In particular, while the positive impact of organized activity involvement has been well documented in typically developing youth, there is little known about whether these benefits also apply to high functioning youth on the autism spectrum. The aims of HATS included gaining a better understanding of these relations and the influence of social impairment, friendship quality, and executive functions on depressive symptoms and loneliness in this population. Finally, as part of this project, we evaluated the potential benefit of having and caring for pets on adjustment for this population. HATS data includes parent and self-report for more than 150 families throughout the United States. Data from this project has been presented at several conferences, including Society for Research on Adolescence in 2012 and the Society for Research in Child Development in 2013.
