“Because communication among family members can impact health behaviors, promoting communication that facilitates healthy eating and physical activity could help build an interpersonal environment that supports weight management among mothers and daughters,” the grant continues. “An intervention that addresses communication competency is especially warranted for Latino families as dissonance in acculturation between parent and child can interfere with effective communication and increase conflict.”

The project will create a “weight management intervention” with “communication training” to provide Mexican-American women and their daughters “reciprocal support for healthy eating and physical activity behaviors.”

The study, which will continue through December 2020, has cost taxpayers $143,002.