Overview of the Program
’s behavior, weight loss
The web-based intervention was tailored on numerous constructs from both parents and adolescents, including parenting, behavior, and cultural variables (Overview of the content and tailoring strategies used in the web-based intervention.The program began with a welcome session in week 1, which included an overview of the program and an introduction of the 6 content sessions. In the first week, parents developed a calorie-related goal for their adolescent children and completed a tailored autonomy-supportive parenting exercise to assess their current parenting styles and practices. In the following weeks, each session followed the same basic structure completing a check-in on goals, providing feedback on the adolescents’ progress, completing a content session, and developing an action plan for the upcoming week. Each session began with a check-in survey, in which parents reported their adolescent children’s behavior in the 6 targeted areas and their progress while meeting their calorie goal. This information was used to provide parents with ongoing tailored feedback about their adolescents’ progress (compared with previous reports). Parents were then guided to select one of the 6 content sessions to complete. The order of these sessions was tailored based on the adolescents’ progress and their willingness to change each behavior such that behaviors that were more challenging and those that the adolescents were willing to work on appeared first, followed by behaviors that were less challenging or those that the adolescents were less willing to change. However, parents were free to select the session they wanted to complete in a given week. In the final session during week 8, the content focused on ways in which parents could continue to support their adolescent children with their weight loss goals, including reviewing the autonomy-supportive parenting strategies and tips for applying them to the 6 targeted health behaviors. Parents completed one last check-in and received feedback on their adolescents’ progress across the 8-week program.