Promoting water consumption among Dutch children: an evaluation of the social network intervention Share H2 O

Background: There is a need to develop and improve interventions promoting healthy drinking behaviors among children. A promising method could be to stimulate peer influence within children’s social networks. In the Share H2O social network intervention (SNI), peer influence was utilized by selecting a subset of influential children and training them as ‘influence agents’ to promote water consumption—as an alternative to SSBs. Previous research has mainly focused on the process of selecting influence agents. However, the process of motivating influence agents to promote the behavior has hardly received any research attention. Therefore, in the SNI Share H2O SNI, this motivation process was emphasized and grounded in the self-determination t

Promoting Water Consumption among Children: A Three-Arm Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Testing a Social Network Intervention

Objective: To test the effectiveness of a social network intervention (SNI) to improve children's healthy drinking behaviors. Design: A three-arm cluster randomized control trial design was used. In the SNI, a subset of children were selected and trained as 'influence agents' to promote water consumption-as an alternative to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs)-among their peers. In the active control condition, all children were simultaneously exposed to the benefits of water consumption. The control condition received no intervention. Setting: 11 schools in the Netherlands. Participants: 451 children (M age = 10.74, SD age =.97; 50.8% girls). Results: Structural path models showed that children exposed to the SNI consumed.20 less SSBs per day compared to those in the control condition (β =.25, p =.035). There was a trend showing that children exposed to the SNI consumed.17 less SSBs per day than those in the active control condition (β =.20, p =.061). No differences were found between conditions for water consumption. However, t