Unplugged is a project funded by the National Institutes of Health to develop and test interventions to reduce screen time and minimize the impact of media promotion of foods. The intervention will include five components:

• 30 Days Live!, students give up TV for a month
• Media literacy curriculum at school
• Family activities to change home environments
• School wide activities such as celebration of TV Turnoff Week
• Conversations about food marketing and non-educational uses of screens at school

2007- 2008

• Recruit 10 elementary schools
• Conduct interviews and focus groups with parents, teachers & administrators
• Use an iterative process with successive groups of teachers and parents to create feasible, effective and fun materials and learning activities
• Develop model school policies

  2008 - 2009

• Recruit “study families” at each of the 10 schools
• Implement the intervention in 5 elementary schools
• Evaluate the feasibility of the intervention for administrators, schools, parents and students
• Monitor changes in behavioral capacity, expectations and self efficacy
• Measure the impact of the intervention on hours of screen time, purchases of highly advertised foods, physical activity levels, BMI
• Prepare materials for the 5 control schools so that they can implement in 2009-2010

Now recruiting schools!
Incentives include school funds for celebrations, teacher stipends, family honorariums, materials and an opportunity to be part of this important study. Please contact Mary Podrabsky for more information.