Parents' Stage of Change for Diet and Physical Activity: Influence on Childhood Obesity

Abstract

Highly visible public health education efforts have resulted in increased awareness of the childhood obesity epidemic but not a related decline in the number of overweight children. The Transtheoretical Model was used to examine the associations among child risk factors, parent's knowledge of factors associated with childhood obesity and their access to healthy foods in their community and parent's stage of change (SOC) in making behavior changes to improve their child's diet and level of physical activity. Parents (n = 124) of children between 6-12 years of age were surveyed. Perceived weight of the child and the child's body mass index (BMI) were found to be associated with parent's SOC for food portions and dietary fats, yet this was not observed for the fruits and vegetables or physical activity domains. Food availability and parent's childhood obesity knowledge was not found to be associated with parent's SOC. This study provides evidence that intervention efforts that stress knowledge of the causes and harmful effects of being overweight may have limited effectiveness.

Childhood Obesity Perceptions Among African American Caregivers in a Rural Georgia Community: A Mixed Methods Approach

“…When rural caregivers attempt to model and maintain a healthy lifestyle for children recreational parks and facilities, grocery stores with fresh produce, and health care resources are unavailable or inaccessible [13,[17][18][19]. African American communities experience more barriers in their environment resulting in higher obesity rates [20][21][22]. However, past studies that have examined this association were subjected to small sample sizes and conducted only in urban settings.…”

Development and psychometric validation of the ‘Parent Perspective University of Rhode Island Change Assessment-Short’ (PURICA-S) Questionnaire for the application in parents of children with overweight and obesity

“…22 Different from what we are trying to achieve in this study, the FSOC tool does not focus on the role of the parents as 'agents of change' for their children but assesses the families as a whole. Furthermore, the instrument was developed from the Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Screening Survey by taking those items that are specific to family behaviours, adapting them and applying a staging algorithm to them that DiClemente et al 23 originally used for smoking cessation in 1991.…”

“…The instrument however has been used on a very specific sample (children visiting a physical activity programme by an agency for socially disadvantaged children) and the authors themselves state that their study does not provide any evidence of the validity of the used measure. 22 It can therefore at most be seen as preliminary work for further development and validation of an instrument assessing the parents' SoC.…”

Childhood Obesity

“…Studies on diet over the past two decades note children's eating habits changed in a variety of ways including skipping breakfast, an increase in dinners eaten outside of the home, an increase in portion size, and an increase in snacking (Sealy & Farmer, 2011;Swann, 2012;United States Department of Health and Suman Services, 2011;Vanhala, Laitinen, Kaikkonen, Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, & Korpelainen, 2010).…”