Table 4.

Results for Study 2: Children’s Perception of Their Own Weight and Weight-Loss Attempts as Mediators of the Effect of Parents’ Perception of Their Children as Overweight on Children’s Weight Gain Between the Ages of 9 and 13 (N = 5,886)

Path and mediator	Point estimate	SE
Path a
Parent perception → child-perceived weight	0.173*	0.030
Parent perception → child weight-loss attempts	0.160*	0.020
Path b
Child-perceived weight → BMI at age 13	0.992*	0.047
Child weight-loss attempts → BMI at age 13	0.853*	0.069
Path c
Parent perception → BMI at age 13	10.137*	0.108
Path c′
Parent perception → BMI at age 13	0.829*	0.101
Indirect effect (ab)
Via child-perceived weighta	0.171*	0.032, 95% BC CI = [0.112, 0.237]
Via weight-loss attemptsb	0.136*	0.022, 95% BC CI = [0.096, 0.183]

Note: Models were adjusted for baseline body mass index (BMI), gender, age, whether parents were born outside of Ireland (yes or no), whether a medical condition existed (yes or no), household income, whether a language other than English was spoken at home (yes or no), and parents’ perception that their child was underweight (yes or no). Coefficients for indirect effects are from a bootstrap analysis with 5,000 bootstrap samples. BC CI = bias-corrected confidence interval.

^aThe effect ratio (i.e., indirect effect/c) was .15 for child-perceived weight. ^bThe effect ratio (i.e., indirect effect/c) was .12 for weight-loss attempts.

^*p < .01.