Current knowledge about the health behavior of young children: a conference summary

Twenty-five researchers involved in work related to the health behavior of young children attended an invitational conference to achieve consensus regarding: (a) the definitions, research methods, instruments, and variables that should guide future research into the health behavior of young children, and (b) the nature of the knowledge deficits that should be addressed by future research. The researchers examined the predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors related to health behavior, the important types of health behavior of children, the valid indicators of health behavior, and the conceptual framework within which these things can be viewed effectively. Although the stated goal of the conference was not achieved (i.e., to gain consensus about a set of guidelines in order to focus directions in data collection and thereby to facilitate comparability of results), the conference did obtain interdisciplinary perspectives on the state of the theory, research instruments, and knowledge gaps in the health behavior of children. Innovative research designs, and more rigorous research methods need to be applied to the entire area of health behavior before guidelines can be proposed.