Table 4.

Topics that are a worry to children; US children (n 1224) participating in an online survey, January 2010 ^* Questions: ‘How worried are you about…?’

	Weight	School	Money	Car accident	Diabetes/heart disease
	(%)†	(%)†	(%)†	(%)†	(%)†
Total (tweens and teens)
Self-categorized as overweight‡	81·9	75·2	78·2	40·8	49·5
Self-categorized as under/normal weight§	31·1	64·4	64·4	41·1	33·8
Tweens
Self-categorized as overweight‡	74·6	77·2	59·6	30·7	35·1
Self-categorized as under/normal weight§	24·3	59·8	52·6	36·4	23·3
Teens
Self-categorized as overweight‡	85·7	74·2	88·0	46·1	57·1
Self-categorized as under/normal weight§	37·2	68·5	74·8	45·2	43·1

Tweens, aged 8–12 years; teens, aged 13–18 years.

^*Five separate questions: ‘How worried are you about being or becoming overweight?’; ‘How worried are you about doing well in school?’; ‘How worried are you about not having enough money?’; ‘How worried are you about being hurt in a car accident?’; ‘How worried are you about getting an illness such as diabetes or heart disease?’.

^†The scale was dichotomized into ‘worried’/'not worried’ and only the percentages for those who worried are shown here.

^‡‘Slightly overweight’ or ‘very overweight’ selected in self-assessment.

^§‘Very underweight’, ‘slightly underweight’ or ‘about the right weight’ selected in self-assessment.