Predictors of parental concerns about child weight in parents of healthy-weight and overweight 2-6 year olds.
Parental awareness and concerns about a child's weight can promote healthy food parenting behaviors. Understanding the factors that influence parent's concerns about childhood (over)weight may help professionals define more effective strategies when working with families. This study aimed to assess parental concerns about their young child's weight and to identify contributors of parental concerns about weight in parents of healthy-weight and overweight children, considered separately.



Data collection was performed using a cross-sectional design. Parents of 339 children aged from 2 to 6 years completed a Children's Eating Habits Questionnaire and rated their perceptions of and concerns about their child's weight and diet quality. Children's body mass index was assessed and two samples were defined according to the child's nutritional status: healthy-weight (N = 230) and overweight (N = 109) children. Binomial logistic regression was used to predict parental concerns about the child's weight in each sample.



Parental concerns about the child's weight were moderate in both groups. For healthy-weight children, parental concerns about the child's weight were significantly predicted by the parents' perception of the child's weight, concerns about the child's diet and the child's healthy food intake. In the overweight children group, parents' perception of the child's weight, concerns about the child's diet and perception of the child's diet quality predicted parental concerns, with the child's gender and recall of physician's warnings about the child's overweight condition as marginal predictors.



Our results show that concerns about the child's weight in these two groups of parents share some common determinants but also differ regarding other factors, thus suggesting the need to consider these differences when working with parents of young children with different weight status.
Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013, Lisboa, Portugal. Electronic address: ana_fernandes_gomes@hotmail.com.
Ana Isabel
AI
Gomes
Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013, Lisboa, Portugal. Electronic address: lbarros@psicologia.ulisboa.pt.
Luisa
L
Barros
Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013, Lisboa, Portugal. Electronic address: aipereira@psicologia.ulisboa.pt.
Ana Isabel
AI
Pereira
D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D000072001:Diet, Healthy; D005260:Female; D063427:Food Quality; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D050177:Overweight / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D011174:Portugal; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
Child's weight status; Parental concerns; Young children