Table 2.

Path models of direct and indirect effects of parental education on childhood overweight (see Figure 1 )

		H0: Model 1 fits better than full model		H0: Model 2 fits better than full model		H0: Model 3 fits better than full model
Subgroup	Effect mediated by:	x 2	df	x 2	df	x 2	df
Younger1 boys	Paternal BMI	22.17***	1	14.83***	1	43.99***	2
	Maternal BMI	16.10***	1	10.53**	1	31.30***	2
Older2 boys	Paternal BMI	10.32**	1	3.89*	1	16.79***	2
	Maternal BMI	13.09**	1	3.38	1	19.80***	2
Younger1 girls	Paternal BMI	-		-		-
	Maternal BMI	-		-		-
Older2 girls	Paternal BMI	-		-		-
	Maternal BMI	7.07*	1	2.91	1	11.54**	2

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; x², chi-square; df, degrees of freedom.

¹Younger, ca 3–8 years.

²Older, ca 11–16 years.

***= p < .001, ** = p < .005, * = p < .05.

Chi-square difference test for path model fit.

Model 1: path from paternal/maternal education to paternal/maternal BMI (b1) was fixed to 0.

Model 2: path from paternal/maternal education to child’s overweight (b3) was fixed to 0.

Model 3: both paths b1 and b3 were fixed to 0.