The NYU Child Study Center's Dr. Laurie Miller Brotman and her team of researchers have published a paper in the journal Pediatrics based on their groundbreaking research into the prevention of childhood obesity. Dr. Miller Brotman's team looked at whether early childhood interventions aimed at improving basic parenting practices could have a positive impact on childhood obesity, a national problem that is of increasing concern.

Dr. Miller Brotman and her researchers found that the ParentCorps program they have developed—which has already been proven to have a positive impact on academic performance and behavior when used with parents of low income, high-risk preschoolers—also results in lower rates of obesity. ParentCorps helps support parents by teaching more effective discipline techniques and ways of interacting with children.

You can read more about Dr. Miller Brotman and her team's research in the full article in Pediatrics and in the accompanying press release.

For more about the research behind ParentCorps, watch a video of Dr. Miller Brotman's presentation at the CSC's Grand Rounds on Nov. 4, 2011.

Hear Dr. Brotman on DoctorRadio.

Dr. Brotman's co-authors include Spring Dawson-McClure, Ph.D.; Keng-Yen Huang, Ph.D.; Rachelle Theise, Psy.D.; Dimitra Kamboukos, Ph.D.; Jing Wang, MA; and Eva Petkova, Ph.D., all of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; and Gbenga Ogedegbe, M.D., of the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, NYU School of Medicine.