The Impact of Parents’ Categorization of Their Own Weight and Their Child’s Weight on Healthy Lifestyle Promoting Beliefs and Practices

Table 1

Characteristics of parents stratified by perceived child’s weight status () and by parents’ self-reported weight status only among parents who perceived their child as overweight.

Characteristic	All parents ()		Parents of overweight^1 child ()
	Child normal weight^1	Child overweight^1	Normal weight^1parent	Overweight^1 parent
	Parent/household
Sex of parent
Female	72.3%	76.4%	72.0%	78.9%
Male	27.7%	23.6%	28.0%	21.1%
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic white	67.7%	57.2%^**	62.6%	54.3%
Non-Hispanic black	23.6%	31.2%	26.0%	34.1%
Hispanic	4.3%	6.1%	5.7%	6.3%
Other	4.4%	5.5%	5.7%	5.4%
Household income^1
<$50,000	38.8%	50.6%^***	44.5%	54.0%
≥$50,000	61.2%	49.4%	55.5%	46.0%
Education
Some college or less	48.2%	53.5%	55.2%	52.5%
College graduate	51.8%	46.5%	44.8%	47.5%
Household location
Metro	43.7%	47.7%	46.4%	48.4%^*
Other urban	33.8%	31.0%	25.6%	34.1%
Other	22.5%	21.3%	28.0%	17.5%
Child
Weight status (per BMI)
Normal weight	72.8%	16.4%^***	16.8%	16.1%
Obese	27.2%	83.6%	83.2%	83.9%
Sex of child
Female	48.1%	49.1%	40.0%	54.3%^*
Male	51.9%	50.9%	60.0%	45.7%
Age of child
≤11 years	59.5%	50.0%^**	55.2%	47.1%
>11 years	40.5%	50.0%	44.8%	52.9%

; ; .
Two-sided level of significance in relation to their normal weight comparator was tested using Chi-square tests of independence or Fisher’s exact tests.
¹Weight status of parents and children is that as perceived by the parents.