title: Parental characteristics have a larger effect on children's health behaviour than their body weight.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Parents take an important role in a child's development, but there is currently limited information on parental correlates with children's health behaviour. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine whether parental characteristics, such as body weight, TV consumption and sport participation, affect children's body weight and health behaviour.
  
  
  METHODS
  To examine the effects of parental characteristics on children's body weight and health behaviour, baseline data of 1,118 elementary school children (7.6 ± 0.4 years) participating in a school-based intervention in southwest Germany was used. Children's height and weight were measured and parent as well as child behaviour was assessed via questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  BMI percentiles of children were positively associated with parental BMI (r = 0.2, p <0.01). Further, high parental TV time increased the odds for high TV time in children (OR mother= 2.2, OR father = 2.3) and parental club sport participation increased the odds for club sport participation in children (OR mother = 1.9, OR father = 1.7). The relationship between parental and child behaviour was stronger than the relationship between parental BMI and BMI percentiles of the child.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that parental behaviour and role modeling provide an important contribution to childrens' health behaviour, especially at younger ages.
authors.forename: Clemens
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Drenowatz
authors.forename: Nanette
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Erkelenz
authors.forename: Olivia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Wartha
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brandstetter
authors.forename: Jürgen M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Steinacker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D015444:Exercise; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000209:etiology*; D012574:Schools; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D013177:Sports; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013690:Television