Kirsten Davison

Donald and Sue Pritzker Associate Professor of Nutrition

Department of Nutrition

Department of Society, Human Development, and Health

Building 2, Room 331
655 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
kdavison@hsph.harvard.edu

Education

B.A. (Hons, Psychology), 1994, Otago University, New Zealand
M.S. (Human Development and Family Studies), 1997, The Pennsylvania State University
Ph.D. (Human Development and Family Studies), 2001, The Pennsylvania State University

Other Affiliations

Director, Graduate Program in Public Health Nutrition
Standing member, NIH Psychosocial Risk and Disease Prevention (PRDP) study section 

Research Interests

  • Families and child health, with a particular focus on obesity
  • Family-centered interventions for obesity prevention
  • Parenting effects on youth physical activity and screen-based behaviors 
  • Development and application of conceptual models for obesity prevention
  • Program evaluation; longitudinal research designs

My research primarily focuses on family- and community-level factors that influence children's lifestyle behaviors (diet, physical activity, screen-based activities) and risk of obesity.  Key topics that I have researched to date include familial clustering of risk behaviors linked with accelerated weight gain in children, psychosocial consequences of obesity in children, parenting strategies that promote active lifestyles in children, and developmental and contextual factors that explain declines in adolescent girls’ physical activity.  More recently, my work has focused on the development and evaluation of family-centered interventions for obesity prevention in low-income children, including children enrolled in WIC and Head Start. A primary emphasis of these programs is the need to consider the family unit as a whole and address factors beyond the family (e.g., community resources, media factors) that impact on intrafamilial interactions around healthy lifestyles.

A secondary focus of my work is the development and application of conceptual models that foster a stronger understanding of the contextual, developmental and behavioral origins of obesity in children and adolescents.  Examples include the Ecological Model of Childhood Obesity (Davison & Birch 2001), the Family Ecological Model (Davison & Campell, 2005) and the Family Action-based Model of Intervention Layout and Implementation (FAMILI)) (Davison, Lawson, & Coatsworth, in press). 

Current projects

A childhood obesity prevention program designed by families for families (ARRA)
This is a two-year NIH-funded study that utilizes community-based participatory research (CBPR) to engage Head Start parents in the development and implementation of a family-centered childhood obesity prevention program for Head Start children and their families.  R24MD004865

Familial influences on obesity risk in rural youth
This is an observational study conducted in collaboration with Bassett Healthcare, NY as part of a rural health census in upstate New York.  The study examines the interplay between family- and community-level factors in predicting diet, physical activity, and screen-based behaviors in rural youth (2 to 17 years) and age differences in these relationships.

Selected Publications

Familial influences on children’s obesity risk (research and theory)

Davison, K.K. & Birch, L.L. (2001). Childhood overweight: A contextual model and recommendations for future research.  Obesity Reviews, 2(3), 159-171.  PMCID: PMC2530932.  PDF

Davison, K.K., & Birch, L.L. (2002). Obesigenic families: Parents’ physical activity and dietary intake patterns predict girls’ risk of overweight.  International Journal of Obesity, 26, 1186-1193.  PDF

Davison, K.K.  & Campbell, K.J. (2005).  Opportunities to prevent obesity in children within families: An ecological approach.  In D. Crawford & R. Jeffery.  Obesity Prevention and Public Health (pp.207-230). Oxford University Press.  Oxford.  PDF

Davison, K.K., Edmunds, L. S., Wyker, B. A., Young, L. M., Sarfoh, V. S., Sekhobo, J. P. (2011).  Feasibility of increasing children’s outdoor play and decreasing television viewing through a family-based intervention in WIC.  Preventing Chronic Disease, 8(3).  PDF

Davison, K.K., Lawson, H. A., & Coatsworth, J. D. (in press).  The Family Action-based Model of Intervention Layout and Implementation (FAMILI):  The Example of Childhood Obesity.  Health Promotion Practice.  Onlinefirst May 31st, 2011. doi:10.1177/1524839910377966.  PDF
 

Adolescent girls’ physical activity 

Davison, K.K., Cutting, T.M., & Birch, L.L.  (2003). Parents’ activity-related parenting practices predict girls’ physical activity.   Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35(9), 1589-1595.  PDF

Davison, K. K. & Jago, R. (2009).  Change in parent and peer support across ages 9- to 15-years and adolescent girls’ physical activity.  Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 41(9), 1816-1825.  PDF

Davison, K. K. & Deane, G. D. (2010).  The consequence of encouraging girls to be active for weight loss.  Social Science and Medicine, 70, 518-525.  PDF

Davison, K. K., Schmalz, D. L., & Symons Downs, D. (2010). Hop, skip…No!  Reasons adolescent girls disengage from physical activity.  Annals for Behavioral Medicine. 39, 290-302.  PDF

Davison, K.K., Li, K., Baskin, M.L., Cox, T.L., Affuso, O. (2011).  Measuring parental support for children’s physical activity in white and African American parents:  The Activity Support Scale for Multiple Groups (ACTS-MG).  Preventive Medicine.  52(1), 39-43.  PDF