title: Perceptions of low-income mothers about the causes and ways to prevent overweight in children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Childhood overweight and obesity remain major health conditions, affecting nearly one-third of children in the USA. Multiple factors have been identified that contribute to children becoming overweight; however, little is known regarding what low-income mothers perceive to be the causes of and the ways to prevent children from becoming overweight.
  
  
  METHODS
  Low-income mothers (n = 286) with children aged 4-8 years participated in semi-structured interviews, during which they were asked for their opinions about the causes of and ways to prevent children from becoming overweight. After themes were identified, interviews were coded for the presence or absence of each theme.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of mothers were non-Hispanic White (69.2%) and overweight or obese (77.3%). Additionally, many of the children (41.9%) were overweight or obese. Six causes of children becoming overweight were identified by mothers: types or quantities of food eaten (90.9%); parenting behaviours (44.9%); lack of activity (42.3%); genetics, slow metabolism or medical issues (24.5%); stress or emotion (5.2%); and limited access to resources (3.5%). Five ways to prevent children from becoming overweight identified by mothers included the following: healthy eating (84.9%), more activity (54.8%), limiting screen time (19.9%), limiting sugar-sweetened beverages (12.2%) and drinking more water (6.6%). The majority of mothers (77.1%) reported that they carried out their suggestions to prevent their children from becoming overweight.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Within this cohort with a high prevalence of maternal and child overweight, most mothers identified many of the evidence-based strategies for childhood obesity prevention. Future intervention development may benefit from focusing on content areas that were less commonly identified by mothers as well as helping mothers translate knowledge to implementation.
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion and Development, School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Danford
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion/Risk Reduction, School of Nursing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Schultz
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rosenblum
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.|Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.|Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.|Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lumeng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008824:Michigan / Q000453:epidemiology; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016487:Parenting; D011203:Poverty; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: children; health promotion; mothers; obesity; parent perceptions; quantitative research methods