The Role of Parental Misperception of Child's Body Weight in Childhood Obesity

Purpose To investigate the accuracy of parental perceptions of their child's weight status and also the relationship between parental perceptions and the prevalence of childhood obesity in Mississippi. Design and Methods: Data from multi-year surveys (2009-2012) with random samples of public school parents (N = 14,808). Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression were conducted with quantitative data to examine the relationship between parental perception and childhood obesity. Results: More than 2 out of 5 parents misperceived the weight status of their child (k-12). The greatest difference occurred with kindergartners, 83.9% of parents categorized them as healthy, when only 28.3% actually were. Parents who misperceived their child's weight were almost 12 times more likely of having an obese child. Conclusions: Only half of the children in this study had a healthy weight (54.5%). Health care providers, nutritionists, social workers, teachers, and school health councils could play an important role in educating parents and children on how to recognize an unhealthy weight. Practice Implications: The strongest predictor of childhood obesity was parental misperception of their child's weight status. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.