Table 3.

Parent Focus Group Themes

Theme	Sub-Theme	Number of References	Number of Focus Groups	Examples
Focus on Prevention of Chronic Disease and Health
	Influence on Health	8	4	Weight was considered problematic when accompanied with health issues and functional limitations.
	Body measurements	14	6	Weight for height, military weight standards, and body mass index charts were all discussed as indicators of being overweight.
	Prevention	15	6	Weight loss was important for improvement in overall health and to avoid chronic disease and increase longevity.
Role of Parents and Social Support
	Parenting Practices	23	6	Monitoring child, purchasing healthy foods, providing incentives and rewards, autonomy support, parental involvement, and difficulty controlling child behaviors as related to child weight and health behaviors.
	Parental Support	21	6	Parental support including motivation, participating with child in programs, and encouragement were cited as important parent roles.
	Parental Modeling	10	6	Parental modeling of health behaviors, parent seen as successful in weight management efforts were considered important for child behavioral change.
Socio-ecological approach to examine factors that contribute to weight
	Biological	5	5	Genetics, metabolism, and health problems that lead to being overweight.
	Individual (Child level)	32	6	Screen time, unhealthy eating, overeating, lack of physical activity behaviors lead to being overweight.
	Interpersonal	11	4	Focused primarily on parent-child interactions such as lack of parental involvement, role modeling, and parents purchasing unhealthy foods.
	Community	15	4	Community related factors that lead to overweight including safety issues, not knowing neighbors, parks not equipped for older children, cost of healthy foods, traffic, and lack of access to leisure physical activities (e.g., pool, recreational centers).