Parents’ Perceptions of the Challenges to Helping Their Children Maintain or Achieve a Healthy Weight

Table 3

Differences in the probability of reported child snacking¹ behaviors, by parent race/ethnicity ().

		Parent race/ethnicity
	Total	White (non-Hispanic)	Black (non-Hispanic)	Hispanic
	Predicted probability (95% CI)	Predicted probability (95% CI)	Predicted probability (95% CI)	Predicted probability (95% CI)
Child overall snacking
Child had a snack (food or beverage) between 3 pm and bedtime	82.6% (79.4, 85.9)	83.1% (79.3, 86.9)	82.8% (72.6, 93.1)	80.5% (71.3, 89.7)
Unhealthy snacking among children who have had snacks^2
Child had any unhealthy snacks (food or beverage)	63.1% (58.3, 67.8)	60.6% (54.1, 67.1)	74.1% (60.8, 87.4)	63.5% (52.0, 74.9)
Child had any unhealthy food	54.2% (49.2, 59.2)	53.1% (46.5, 59.7)	58.6% (44.4, 72.8)	54.6% (42.9, 66.2)
Child had any unhealthy beverage(s)	30.1% (25.8, 34.4)	25.6%^b (19.8, 31.4)	47.0%^a (32.6, 61.3)	30.5% (21.0, 39.9)
Reasons the child had food/drink that can lead to unhealthy weight gain among children who have had unhealthy snacks^3
Do not mind since the child generally eats healthy food	80.0% (75.1, 84.8)	85.8% (78.9, 92.8)	74.9% (63.0, 86.8)	72.6% (61.2, 84.0)
Taste of food	73.5% (68.4, 78.5)	73.2% (66.4, 80.1)	77.8% (67.5, 88.1)	69.3% (57.1, 81.5)
Lack of time	32.2% (27.0, 37.4)	24.2%^c (17.3, 31.2)	38.7% (24.8, 52.5)	48.2%^a (33.4, 63.1)
Too expensive	12.8% (9.3, 16.3)	12.9%^b (6.4, 19.4)	3.8%^ac (0.0, 8.0)	20.6%^b (13.0, 28.2)
Parent was too tired	6.6% (3.9, 9.4)	5.4% (2.2, 8.5)	5.8% (1.2, 10.3)	13.0% (4.4, 21.6)
No adults watching what the child ate	8.9% (5.6, 12.1)	7.4% (3.0, 11.9)	12.6% (1.6, 23.6)	8.8% (2.0, 15.6)

Note. All Table 3 estimates adjust for parent gender, child gender, parent age, child age, parent education, household composition (1- or 2-parent), household income, parent perception of child’s weight, number of children in household, and whether parents or siblings are overweight; N’s differ based on “Don’t Know/Refused” responses, variables with missing responses were excluded from models. ^aSignificantly different from non-Hispanic Whites at ; ^bsignificantly different from non-Hispanic Blacks at ; ^csignificantly different from Hispanics at . ¹Snacking is defined as the parent reported that the child had any food/drink between 3 pm and bedtime yesterday, not including dinner, and parent reported knowing what the child ate/drank; ²percent calculated only among the subset of parents reporting their child ate or drank any snacks between 3 pm and bedtime; unhealthy snacks indicate that the parent reported the child had any food/drink that can lead to unhealthy weight gain during this time; ³percent calculated only among the subset of parents reporting their child ate or drank any snacks between 3 pm and bedtime that could lead to unhealthy weight gain. Data are based on a poll that was fielded from October 11 to November 21, 2012, using a nationally representative, randomized telephone sample (including both landline and cellular phones) of households with children aged 2–17 years.