Relationships of Kindergarten Children’s BMI amongst Parental Body Dissatisfaction and Dietary Restraint: A Case Study in Hong Kong

Abstract

Objective: In this study, the aim was to explore the relationships of kindergarten children's BMI amongst parental factors such as parental BMI, body dissatisfaction, parental dietary restraint, child weight concern and child weightfocused restrictive feeding.Method: 466 kindergarten students' parents were participated in this study. A self-administrated questionnaire was distributed to parents. Independent t-test, one way ANOVA and Pearson's correlation were performed to analyze the relationships amongst different factors contributing to children's BMI. Conclusion:The results of this study confirmed the presence of upward trend of childhood obesity in Hong Kong. In addition, parental body dissatisfaction was found to be a significant factor to determine parental dietary restraint, which was associated with child weight-focused restrictive feeding and finally affected child BMI.