Relationship of Chinese American Parental Perceptions, Feeding Practices, Styles and Level of Acculturation to Their Child's BMI

Abstract

To examine the relationships among parental perceptions, concerns, feeding practices, feeding styles, level of acculturation, and children’s weight status in Chinese Americans. The Chinese American population is increasing, as is the prevalence of overweight and obesity in its children. We need to understand parental perceptions and feeding practices to design appropriate programs. A cross-sectional study of parents across a wide SES range with children 5 to 10 years old (n=680) used a self-reported survey instrument that included the validated Child Feeding Questionnaire, Caregiver’s Feeding Styles Questionnaire, and Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The prevalence of overweight was 11.7% and obesity 12.1%. Children’s %BMI for age was significantly positively correlated to parental perceptions of child and their own weight status (p<.001), and concerns about child weight (p<.05); and negatively correlated to the feeding practice of pressure to eat (p<.001) and with the feeding style of both demandingness and responsiveness, but not to parental level of acculturation (PLA). PLA was positively correlated with perceived responsibility (perception) (p<.001), monitoring (practice), and the feeding style of responsiveness and negatively correlated with pressure to eat (p<.001). Level of parental acculturation was also correlated with length stay in USA (p<.001), education (p<.001), and family income (p<.001). Children’s %BMI is correlated to some parental concerns, but negatively to pressure to eat, demandingness and responsiveness, opposite to findings in other samples. This finding suggests that cultural differences are important to explore in studies of parental feeding practices and feeding styles.