Development and Validation of a Parental Health-Related Empowerment Scale with Low Income Parents

Objectives: Consistent with empowerment theory, parental empowerment acts as a mechanism of change in family-based interventions to support child health. Yet, there are no comprehensive, validated measures of parental health-related empowerment to test this important perspective. Informed by empowerment theory and in the context of a community-based obesity intervention, we developed a self-report measure of parental health-related empowerment and tested its preliminary validity with low-income parents. Methods: The Parental Empowerment through Awareness, Relationships, and Resources (PEARR) is a 21-item scale designed to measure three subdimensions of empowerment including resource empowerment, critical awareness, and relational empowerment. In the fall of 2017 or the fall of 2018, low-income parents (n = 770, 88% mothers) from 16 Head Start programs in Greater Boston completed the PEARR. The resulting data were randomly split into two equal samples with complete data. The factorial structure of the PEARR was tested in the first half of the sample using principal component analysis (PCA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and subsequently confirmed with the second half of the sample using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Internal consistency coefficients were calculated for the final subscales. Results: Results from the PCA and EFA analyses identified three component factors (eigenvalues = 8.25, 2.75, 2.12) with all items loading significantly onto the hypothesized subdimension (β > 0.59 and p < 0.01). The three-factor model was subsequently confirmed with the second half of the sample using CFA (β > 0.54 and p < 0.01). Fit indices met minimum criteria (Comparative Fit Index = 0.95, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.05 (0.05, 0.06), Standardized Root-Mean-Square Residual = 0.05). Subscales demonstrated strong internal consistency (α= 0.83–0.90). Conclusions: Results support initial validity of a brief survey measuring parental empowerment for child health among Head Start parents. The PEARR can be utilized to measure changes in parental empowerment through interventions targeting empowerment as a mechanism of change.

Dietary effects of menhaden oil on the growth and membrane lipid composition of rat mammary tumors

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of quantitative differences in dietary menhaden oil, an n-3 polyunsaturated marine oil, on mammary tumor development and to compare these results with those produced by corn oil, an n-6 polyunsaturated vegetable oil. Inbred female BUF rats were treated with the carcinogen N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (CAS: 684-93-5) and maintained on diets containing graded levels of each of the respective oils. Our results indicated that diets containing 20% menhaden oil produced a reduction in tumor incidence and a prolongation of the tumor latent period. This finding contrasted sharply with the enhanced tumor development and shortened latent period observed in the animals fed the equivalent dietary level of corn oil. Fatty acid analyses performed on the lipids extracted from the tumor and hepatic microsomes of the animals on the menhaden oil diets demonstrated that the proportion of eicosapentaenoic acid (No. of C-atoms:No. of double bonds = 20:5) present in these microsomal lipids was related inversely to mammary tumor development.

Dietary lipid effects on the growth, membrane composition, and prolactin-binding capacity of rat mammary tumors

The effects of qualitative and quantitative differences in dietary lipid on the growth of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (CAS: 684-93-5)-initiated mammary tumors were evaluated in inbred female (F344) rats. Specific prolactin-binding measurements and qualitative lipid analyses were performed on both tumor and hepatic microsomes from these animals. Our results indicated that 1) when the polyunsaturated lipid component (corn oil) of the diet exceeded 3%, it was the quantitative level of total lipid, rather than the level of polyunsaturated lipid alone, that best correlated with the observed reduction in tumor latent period; 2) when the polyunsaturated lipid content of the diet fell below 3%, there was a decrease in tumor incidence and an increase in the mean latent period; 3) only those changes in tumor development that occurred when the dietary polyunsaturated lipid content was below 3% were associated with alterations in specific prolactin binding capacity.