The promotion of water consumption among children in Aruba.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of a social network randomized control trial promoting water consumption among primary schools (grade 5 and 6) in Aruba, a small Caribbean island. The intervention consists of sociometrically selecting influential children and educating them on the benefits of drinking water and training them in finding informal ways to promote water consumption among their peers in school for a period of eight weeks. The control condition will not receive any intervention. The consumption of water and sugar sweetened beverages of children will be measured at pre- and post-intervention.

Children in the intervention condition will consume (a) more water and (b) less sugar sweetened beverages after the intervention compared to the control condition.

Pre-intervention measurement: January 2016

Post-intervention measurement: March 2016

Participating primary schools will be randomized in an intervention group and a control group. A key component of the intervention is influential children because of their impact on their social network. Therefore, this intervention will make use of the social network of children at their schools. The intervention will consist of four components: (1) Nominating children sociometrically by their own classmates through a questionnaire; (2) Targeting influential children to take up the role of peer influencers; (3) Training the influential peers to promote water consumption during informal interactions with their classmates for a period of eight weeks; and (4) Conducting follow-up sessions to offer additional support. The control group will receive no treatment. During the training session the peer influencers will (a) Be educated about the health and environmental benefits of drinking water; (b) Be encouraged to formulate their own arguments for drinking water; (c) Be encouraged to find ways to have informal interactions with their classmates in which they can address the consumption of water; and (d) Be encouraged to be an example themselves.