Parent-perceived barriers to child weight management: Measure validation in a clinical sample.

Abstract

Introduction:Although families face many barriers to obtaining and maintaining a healthy weight status for children, there remains a lack of psychometrically sound tools to assess perceived barriers. The Barriers to Child Weight Management (BCWM) scale quantitatively assesses parents' perceptions of barriers to engaging in positive weightrelated behaviors but has not been validated within a clinical sample. The present study sought to validate the BCWM scale among parents of children presenting to a tertiary pediatric weight management clinic. Method: Participants included 258 parents of children aged 6 -18 years presenting to a tertiary care behavioral weight management program. Parents completed the BCWM prior to the initial clinic visit. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the previously identified 4-factor structure within a clinical sample. Results: Overall model fit was good with the addition of 2 theoretically appropriate model respecifications, 2 (144) ϭ 278.60, p Ͻ .001, comparative fit index ϭ .90, root mean square error of approximation ϭ .05, standardized root mean square residual ϭ .06. Discussion: The BCWM is a promising tool to assess parental perceptions of barriers to healthy weight-related behaviors among youth presenting for clinical weight management intervention. Incorporation of this measure into pediatric weight-management appointments may aid in quickly identifying points of intervention.

Early weight loss in adolescent weight management: The role of the home environment.

“…Items were rated from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ), and a mean of all items was calculated for the overall time constraints score with a range from 1, indicating lower time constraints, to 5, indicating higher time constraints. An example item is “It is hard for me to find the time to prepare healthy foods at home.” This measure has shown good convergent validity and appropriate internal consistency within prior normative and clinical samples (Darling et al, 2020, 2018).…”

Barriers to weight management in adolescence: Measure adaptation among adolescents presenting to an interdisciplinary weight management clinic

“…Barriers to weight management in adolescence. Barriers to Weight Management in Adolescence (BWMA) was adapted from the previously validated parent-report Barriers to Child Weight Management (BCWM) measure for the purposes of this study (Darling et al, 2018(Darling et al, , 2020. In adapting BCWM for adolescents, all items and subscales were examined in order to determine specific items to be paralleled from the adolescent perspective.…”

“…This includes measurement of family support, parental disengagement, cost and built environment, and adolescent motivation/disengagement. This measure has been adapted from a previous measure of parent-reported barriers to weight management behaviors (Darling et al, 2018(Darling et al, , 2020. Preliminary reliability and validity of the newly developed Barriers to Adolescent Weight Management were also assessed.…”

“…Yet, there is currently no quantitative assessment of barriers to weight-related health behaviors from an adolescent perspective. These qualitatively identified barriers can serve as a starting point to adapt a previously developed measure of parent-reported barriers to health behaviors impacting child weight management (Darling et al, 2018(Darling et al, , 2020 to measure adolescent perception of barriers.…”

The buffering effect of family support on the association between weight-based teasing and adolescent weight management outcomes.

“…Family support was measured using the parent-reported Family Support subscale of the Barriers to Child Weight Management measure (Darling et al, 2018(Darling et al, , 2020. This four-item scale includes items related to broad family (e.g., parents, siblings) support for making healthy behavior changes (e.g., exercising, healthy eating choices).…”