The Use of Social Ecological Theory to Develop and Implement An After-School Garden Club Curriculum for Overweight and Obesity Prevention

School gardening programs are increasingly becoming a tool to foster improved student health. The purpose of this project was to evaluate an after-school garden program for 4^th and 5^th graders that was developed and implemented based on social ecological theory. Social Ecological Theory proposes that multiple levels of influence (individual, club, school, community) determine health behavior.  For this project, at the individual level, child self-efficacy (a child’s expectation that he/she can do a behavior at a level to reach an outcome), proxy self-efficacy (a child’s expectation that they can get their parent(s) to act on their behalf), outcome expectancies (a child’s expected outcome of a specific behavior), and behavior for gardening, being physically active, being less sedentary and consuming more fruits and vegetables were targeted through the curriculum. A pre-post-6-month follow-up quasi-experimental design was used (Sept. 2008 – October 2010).  Students who participated in at least 40% of the garden club meetings (n=76) during year 1 were included in this analysis.  One-way ANOVA(s) were used to analyze changes in self-efficacy to garden, parental proxy self-efficacy for gardening, fruit and vegetable availability, and physical activity.  Child gardening outcome expectations and behaviors for physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, time spent sedentary and time spent gardening were also measured.  Results from the analysis showed a significant increase in child self-efficacy to garden (mean of 3.6 on a scale of 1 to 5 pre-garden club to 4.5 at 6-month follow-up, p=0.001) and time spent gardening (mean of 5.9 min/day pre-garden club to 22.2 min/day at 6-month follow-up, p=0.001).  No other significant differences were found.