Table 3.
Parental perception of their child's nutritional status, seriousness of childhood overweight and obesity and their self‐efficacy to influence children's eating behaviours and physical activity (N = 221).
| Parental perception and self‐efficacy | Total participants | Healthy weight and underweight | Overweight | Obese | Overweight and obesity | Elevated WHtR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parental perception on child's status using description by wording (n = 211)** | ||||||
| Very underweight | 3 (1.4) | 3 (100) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| A little underweight | 25 (11.9) | 23 (92) | 1 (4.0) | 1 (4.0) | 2 (8.0) | 1 (4.0) |
| About the right weight | 114 (54.0) | 56 (49.1) | 41 (36.0) | 17 (14.9) | 58 (50.9) | 24 (21.1) |
| A little overweight | 57 (27.0) | 3 (5.3) | 15 (26.3) | 39 (68.4) | 54 (94.7) | 39 (68.4) |
| Very overweight | 12 (5.7) | 2 (16.7) | 0 (0.0) | 10 (83.3) | 10 (83.3) | 8 (66.7) |
| Difference between perception on child's nutritional status by wording and actual child's nutritional status (n = 211)** | ||||||
| Under‐ estimated | 120 (56.9) | 21 (17.5) | 42 (35.0) | 57 (47.5) | 99 (82.5) | 56 (46.7) |
| Matched | 84 (39.8) | 59 (70.2) | 15 (17.9) | 10 (11.9) | 25 (29.8) | 15 (17.9) |
| Overestimated | 7 (3.3) | 7 (100.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 1 (14.3) |
| Parental perception on child's status using body image scale (n = 208) ** | ||||||
| Thinness | 42 (20.2) | 38 (90.5) | 4 (9.5) | 0 (0.0) | 4 (9.5) | 0 (0.0) |
| Acceptable | 106 (51.0) | 47 (44.3) | 43 (40.6) | 16 (15.1) | 59 (55.7) | 23 (21.7) |
| Overweight | 41 (19.7) | 1 (2.4) | 8 (19.5) | 32 (78.1) | 40 (97.6) | 33 (80.5) |
| Obese | 19 (9.1) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 19 (100) | 19 (100.0) | 15 (78.9) |
| Difference between perception on child's weight status via body image scale vs actual child's nutritional status (n = 208) ** | ||||||
| Underestimated | 127 (61.1) | 32 (25.2) | 47 (37.0) | 48 (37.8) | 95 (74.8) | 50 (39.4) |
| Matched | 79 (38.0) | 52 (65.8) | 8 (10.1) | 19 (24.1) | 27 (34.2) | 21 (26.6) |
| Overestimated | 2 (1.0) | 2 (100.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Parentals perceived the seriousness of childhood overweight and obesity (n = 205) | ||||||
| Not serious | 25 (12.2) | 10 (40.0) | 11 (44.0) | 4 (16.0) | 15 (60.0) | 9 (36.0) |
| Somewhat serious | 107 (52.2) | 45 (42.1) | 25 (23.4) | 37 (34.6) | 62 (57.9) | 37 (34.6) |
| Very serious | 73 (35.6) | 28 (38.4) | 21 (28.8) | 24 (32.9) | 45 (61.6) | 24 (32.9) |
| Parental's self‐efficacy (n = 161)† | ||||||
| Total score (max = 140) | 93 (30.1) | 95 (29.4) | 102 (24.6) | 85 (33.3) | 93 (30.7) | 89 (31.1) |
| Eating score (max = 80) | 56 (18.1) | 57 (18.0) | 61 (16.5) | 52 (18.7) | 56 (18.3) | 53 (18.4) |
| PA score (max = 60) | 37 (14.9) | 38 (14.1) | 41 (11.1) | 34 (17.8) | 37 (15.5) | 34 (16.0) |
Note: χ 2 test of the difference between children with obesity, with overweight, with overweight and obesity and children with healthy weight and underweight.
**
p < 0.001 for all group comparisons relating to this variable.
†
This variable was presented as mean score and SD.