title: The Role of Parental Misperception of Child's Body Weight in Childhood Obesity.
abstract: To investigate the accuracy of parental perceptions of their child's weight status and also the relationship between parental perceptions and the prevalence of childhood obesity in Mississippi.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from multi-year surveys (2009-2012) with random samples of public school parents (N=14,808). Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression were conducted with quantitative data to examine the relationship between parental perception and childhood obesity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than 2 out of 5 parents misperceived the weight status of their child (k-12). The greatest difference occurred with kindergartners, 83.9% of parents categorized them as "healthy", when only 28.3% actually were. Parents who misperceived their child's weight were almost 12 times more likely of having an obese child.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Only half of the children in this study had a healthy weight (54.5%). Health care providers, nutritionists, social workers, teachers, and school health councils could play an important role in educating parents and children on how to recognize an unhealthy weight.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The strongest predictor of childhood obesity was parental misperception of their child's weight status.
authors.affiliation: Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University. Electronic address: colleen.mckee@ssrc.msstate.edu.
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McKee
authors.affiliation: Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University.
authors.forename: Linda H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Southward
authors.affiliation: Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University.
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McCown
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008922:Mississippi; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D010465:Perception; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012380:Role
keywords: Childhood obesity; Health care providers; Parents; Perception of obesity; School councils