My child is overweight? : How parental perceptions differ by race/ethnicity

Abstract

Low socioeconomic status (SES) and minority populations are at increased risk for overweight (OW), and parents that are unaware of their child's OW status are less likely to seek treatment. We examined the influence of parent's race/ethnicity and SES on parental perceptions of child weight status and concern for the child becoming overweight (CONCERN) among a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of parents and normal and OW children ages 7–12. BMI was assessed via anthropometrics and OW was defined as BMI ≥ 85% for age, sex, and height. Parental perceptions of OW were measured via the Child Feeding Questionnaire. Of the 312 subjects, 53% were male, 39% were white, 34% were African American (AA), and 27% were Hispanic (HA). HA had a higher prevalence of OW (p<0.05), and HA and AA parents report significantly more CONCERN than whites (p<.0001). In parents of OW children, more than two‐thirds of parents in each racial/ethnic group incorrectly identified their child as normal weight. Among AA and HA parents, ~7% identified their OW child as being underweight. In whites, CONCERN was significantly correlated with parental ability to correctly identify weight status (p=0.0043). SES and child sex was not associated with CONCERN or parental ability to correctly identify weight status. This data suggests that among white parents only, concern for weight status was associated with correctly identifying child weight status.Grant Funding Source: T‐32