Table 1. Child and Parent characteristics.
| Variable | Normal weight group (n=38) |
Overweight/obese group (n=41) |
p-value |
|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||
| Child characteristics | |||
| Sex (%) | |||
| Male | 47% | 34% | 0.23 |
| Female | 53% | 66% | |
| Age (years) (mean, S.D.) | 9.7 (1.4) | 10.0 (1.3) | 0.36 |
| BMI percentile (mean, S.D.) | 46.8 (23.9) | 98.2 (1.4) | <0.01 |
| BMI z-score (mean, S.D.) | −0.1 (0.7) | 2.2 (0.3) | <0.01 |
| Emotional eating* (%) | 36.6% | 83.8% | <0.001 |
| Excessive snacking behavior** (%) | 59.5% | 89.2% | <0.01 |
| Mother characteristics | |||
| Race/ethnicity (%) | |||
| White | 70% | 51% | 0.17 |
| Hispanic | 27% | 37% | |
| Other | 3% | 12% | |
| Education (%) | |||
| Some college or less | 24% | 48% | 0.03 |
| College degree or higher | 76% | 52% | |
| Marital status (%) | |||
| Married/living with significant other | 89% | 76% | 0.11 |
| Widowed/divorced/Separated/never Married |
11% | 24% | |
| Age (years) (mean, S.D.) | 40.5 (6.5) | 41.4 (7.1) | 0.58 |
| BMI (kg/m2) (mean, S.D.) | 23.5 (2.9) | 30.0 (5.9) | <0.001 |
| Parenting style dimensions: (mean, S.D.) | |||
| Acceptance | 26.5 (3.8) | 26.3 (3.9) | 0.87 |
| Psychological control | 16.3 (3.2) | 18.1 (4.4) | 0.03 |
| Firm control | 21.5 (2.8) | 20.5 (3.3) | 0.15 |
| Specific parent feeding practices: (mean, S.D.) |
|||
| Restriction | 21.9 (6.8) | 30.9 (5.4) | <0.001 |
| Monitoring | 11.2 (3.3) | 11.6 (2.4) | 0.56 |
| Pressure to eat | 8.7 (3.4) | 7.2 (3.5) | 0.05 |
Mean (SD) are shown for the continuous variables (age, BMI percentile, BMI z-score, and BMI). Scores for each parenting style dimension range from 10-30. Scores for each parent feeding behavior range from: restriction, 8-40; monitoring, 3-15; and pressure to eat, 4-20.
*
Emotional eating includes the constructs of eating when bored and eating when angry or in other negative mood states.
**
Excessive snacking includes the constructs of eating late in the evening/night and eating in a disorderly way between meals.