| dc.description.abstract | Children and adults continue to suffer from obesity, which poses a great public health threat. This research focused on protective factors for its prevention. Parent’s perception of a healthy child’s body size, parent dieting, child dieting, and food behaviors influence on Hispanic preschool children’s weight (assessed by BMI z-scores and raw BMI) was examined in 534 mother-child dyads. A hypothesized model was constructed and tested through a secondary analysis of baseline data collected in fall 2018 from the South Texas Early Prevention Study Project. All data except BMI, were collected via self-administered questionnaires completed by the parents (or guardians). Path analysis was conducted to identify relationships. The conceptual model consisted of various simple and mediated models (i.e., the age model, the perception model, the parent model, and the child model). Inside each of these models, several paths were found to be statistically significant. Within the parent-mediated model, perception of a healthy child’s body size and parent’s dieting had a statistically significant effect on raw BMI. Within the full model, age, parent’s dieting, and child’s dieting had the greatest effects on child’s BMI z-score. As a result, children whose mothers were currently dieting are significantly more likely to diet and gain weight. This effect increased with age. Mothers are crucial to the development of children, and a great deal of research has confirmed this. Perceptions of weight, shape, and appearance are sociocultural values passed on by mothers. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that parents have healthy behaviors not only for themselves but for the sake of their children. As the population of Hispanics increases in the United States, it is important to continue to examine this area in this population. | en_US |
