Parenting, Home Environment, and Child Obesity: A Survey of Parents and Children Attending a Pediatric Clinic.

Author

Amit Ravindra Bodhani, East Tennessee State University

Degree Name

MPH (Master of Public Health)

Program

Public Health

Date of Award

8-2006

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Tiejian Wu

Committee Members

Michael Dunn, Karen Schetzina, James L. Anderson

Abstract

Data were collected from 60 parents of children 5-11 years of age to describe the parental and family factors and explore the associations of these factors with children's Body Mass Index (BMI) percentiles. Mother's made up 81.7% of the sample. Whites/Caucasians comprised 88.3% of the sample. Males comprised 51.6% of the child participants while females comprised 48.3%. Among the child participants, 38.3% had BMI equal to or greater than the 95th percentile, and 6.7% had BMI 85th to less than 95th percentile. Concerns about child weight (r_s = 0.582), pressure to eat (r_s = -0.433), and monitoring (r_s = 0.348) were found to be significantly associated with children's BMI percentile. There are variations in influence of parenting and home environments on children's eating and physical activity, and in the eating and physical activity habits amongst families. Consideration of parental and family factors is needed in developing child obesity prevention programs.

Document Type

Thesis - unrestricted

Recommended Citation

Bodhani, Amit Ravindra, "Parenting, Home Environment, and Child Obesity: A Survey of Parents and Children Attending a Pediatric Clinic." (2006). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2162. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2162

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.