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Parents' Perceptions of the Challenges to Helping Their Children Maintain or Achieve a Healthy Weight.

ABSTRACT: Introduction:Parents play a critical role in their children's weight. This paper examines parents' perceptions about the challenges to helping their kids maintain or achieve a healthy weight. Methods:We analyzed data in 2017 from a U.S. telephone poll conducted during October-November 2012 among parents or caregivers of children aged 2-17 years using a nationally representative sample of households. It included 667 White, 123 Black, and 167 Hispanic parents. Multiple logistic regressions were used to examine parent perceptions about the individual- and environmental-level challenges to helping their children maintain or achieve a healthy weight. Results:Overall, 45% of children have parents who reported challenges helping the child eat to maintain or achieve a healthy weight, and 35% have parents who reported challenges for exercise. According to parents, most children consumed snacks between 3?pm and bedtime during the school week (83%), and 63% of those children had an unhealthy snack. Parents did not express much concern about unhealthy snacks; 80% of children had parents who said that they did not mind since their child generally ate healthy food. Children with Hispanic and Black parents were more likely than those with White parents to have parents reporting environment challenges, such as unhealthy foods in schools. Conclusions:Helping children maintain a healthy weight through diet is a problem for many parents, regardless of their race or ethnicity. Differences by race/ethnicity in parent perceptions of food environment challenges to helping their child maintain or achieve a healthy weight suggest possible areas for future interventions.

SUBMITTER: Bleich SN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6343153 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Parents' Perceptions of the Challenges to Helping Their Children Maintain or Achieve a Healthy Weight.

Bleich Sara N SN Gorski Findling Mary T MT Blendon Robert J RJ Ben-Porath Eran E SteelFisher Gillian K GK

Journal of obesity 20190109

<h4>Introduction</h4>Parents play a critical role in their children's weight. This paper examines parents' perceptions about the challenges to helping their kids maintain or achieve a healthy weight.<h4>Methods</h4>We analyzed data in 2017 from a U.S. telephone poll conducted during October-November 2012 among parents or caregivers of children aged 2-17 years using a nationally representative sample of households. It included 667 White, 123 Black, and 167 Hispanic parents. Multiple logistic regr ...[more]

PMID: 30729042

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Establishing healthy nutrition, activity, and sleep behaviours early in life is a key strategy in childhood obesity prevention. Parents are the primary influence on the development and establishment of obesity-related behaviours in young children. There is evidence that autonomy supporting parenting practices are crucial for the development of self-regulation and the internalisation of healthy behaviours in children. It is therefore imperative that parenting practices are targeted as part of an obesity prevention intervention. However, there is limited understanding of barriers and facilitators to parents using autonomy supporting parenting practices with their children aged 0-5?years. Therefore, the aim of the study was to identify barriers and facilitators to using autonomy supporting parenting practices. A secondary aim was to determine parent preferences in respect to an intervention program to be delivered in community playgroups. METHODS:Parents were recruited through Playgroup Queensland (PGQ), a not-for-profit organisation in Brisbane, Australia, to attend a focus group during their usual playgroup session. The focus group interview guide was designed to promote discussion among the participants in respect to their shared experiences as parents of young children. The focus group transcripts were coded and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Five focus groups with parents (n?=?30) were conducted in May 2018. Most of the participants were mothers [1], and the majority (76%) had a child at playgroup aged between 2 and 4?years. RESULTS:The support and guidance received from other parents at playgroup was a facilitator to autonomy supporting parenting practices. Barriers included beliefs around the need to use rewards to encourage child eating, beliefs around the need for screens as babysitters, and feeling disempowered to change sleep behaviours. Parents were enthusiastic about a potential program that would leverage off the existing playgroup support networks, but they did not want to be "educated", or to lose their "playgroup time" to an intervention. Rather they wanted strategies and support to deal with the frustrations of food, screen and sleep parenting. CONCLUSION:These results will be used to inform the development of a childhood obesity prevention intervention to be delivered in a community playgroup setting.

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Parents' Perceptions of the Challenges to Helping Their Children Maintain or Achieve a Healthy Weight.

Publications

Parents' Perceptions of the Challenges to Helping Their Children Maintain or Achieve a Healthy Weight.

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