Early childhood is an important period where the family can support the development and maintenance of healthy eating and active behaviors to prevent or reduce childhood obesity. With this ultimate goal, we designed the Good Start Matters - Parenting program, which aims to engage families in positive parenting practices that support healthy child behaviors, and aim to evaluate the efficacy of this intervention with a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). The Good Start Matters - Parenting program is a 2-month mobile-Health (mHealth) parenting intervention which promote positive parenting (primary outcome) and support children's healthy nutrition, physical activity, and decrease screen-time (secondary outcomes).

Early childhood is an important learning period where dietary, physical activity and sedentary habits are forming, and developing unhealthy habits will set children up for obesity and other health risks later in life. Moreover, during early childhood the familial environment plays a key role in shaping children's behaviors through their parenting practices, which altogether illustrate the potential of the early years as a developmental period with opportunities for obesity prevention. This Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluates the efficacy of the Good Start Matters - Parenting intervention, a mobile-Health (mHealth) aimed at improving parenting and co-parenting practices and child health behaviors among British Columbian families of preschoolers. Participating families complete measurement tools at baseline and after 10 weeks. Families randomized into the intervention condition receive immediate access to the app, and control families receive access to the app after the completion of the second assessment. We expect that compared to control group families, intervention group families significantly improve their parenting and co-parenting practices and improve child health behaviors after 2 months of app use.

Inclusion Criteria:

Children must be:

• Attending a childcare center invited to participate in the Good Start Matters study.
• Older than 2.5 and younger than 6 years

Parents must:

• Be the primary caregiver/legal guardian of an eligible child OR share childrearing responsibilities with an already enrolled primary caregiver/legal guardian of an eligible child
• Be fluent in English
• Have a cellphone number and smartphone device where they can receive text messages and download and access the app

Exclusion Criteria:

Parents and children:

- Currently participating in a pediatric weight management program or in a nutritional program are not eligible.

Children:

• With severe dietary restrictions that limit their ability to follow general nutritional guidelines for toddlers and preschoolers are not eligible.
• With severe physical limitations that limit their ability to follow general movement behavior guidelines for toddlers and preschoolers are not eligible.