The increasing prevalence of childhood overweight makes children an important target for health promotion programmes. An intervention was designed for mothers to provide more vegetables to their daughters' diet. A randomized controlled trial compared a self-regulation condition with a control condition in 155 mothers aged 25-50 years. Dependent variable was children's (aged 6-11 years) vegetable consumption which was reported by their mothers at three points in time. After baseline (Time 1), the intervention group received theory-based instructional leaflets to promote self-regulatory skills for providing a healthy nutrition for children. Changes were assessed after two weeks (Time 2) and at three-month follow-up (Time 3). The self-regulation intervention in mothers led to an increase in vegetable intake among their daughters at Time 2 but not at Time 3. However, maintenance of vegetable consumption at Time 3 was mediated by the amount of vegetable intake at Time 2. Engaging mothers in self-regulatory health promotion programmes may be a feasible strategy to facilitate more vegetable intake among their daughters.
Keywords: planning; school-aged children; self-regulation intervention; vegetable intake.