Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Oct 27;17(21):7885.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17217885.

Parental Attitudes to Childhood Overweight: The Multiple Paths through Healthy Eating, Screen Use, and Sleeping Time

Miguel Giménez Garcia-Conde  1 , Longinos Marin  1 , Salvador Ruiz de Maya  1 , Pedro J Cuestas  1
Affiliations

Parental Attitudes to Childhood Overweight: The Multiple Paths through Healthy Eating, Screen Use, and Sleeping Time

Miguel Giménez Garcia-Conde et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to examine how parental attitudes toward sleeping, screen use, and feeding their child influence the child's body mass index (BMI) through the child's behaviors related to time dedicated to sleep and television, and their healthy eating. Using survey data from 908 parents, results show that parental attitudes have a significant influence on children's behavior and, more importantly, on their BMI. The three forms of a child's behavior (sleeping, watching TV, and healthy eating patterns) are affected by what parents do and their attitudes toward these three behaviors at home. Results show how changes in parental attitudes are an interesting target to prevent the child's overweight.

Keywords: body mass index (BMI); childhood obesity; feeding; parental attitudes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proposed framework: from parental attitudes to a child’s body mass index.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. World Health Organization (2020) Report 2020. [(accessed on 26 October 2020)]; Available online: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight.
    1. De Onis M., Blössner M., Borghi E. Global prevalence and trends of overweight and obesity among preschool children. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2010;92:1257–1264. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2010.29786. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Potter L., Wallston K., Trief P., Ulbrecht J. Attributing discrimination to weight: Associations with well-being, self-care, and disease status in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. J. Behav. Med. 2015;38:863–875. doi: 10.1007/s10865-015-9655-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. De Costa P., Moller P., Frost M.B., Olsen A. Changing children’s eating behaviour—A review of experimental research. Appetite. 2017;113:327–357. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2017.03.004. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Romanos-Nanclares A., Zazpe I., Santiago S., Marín L., Rico-Campà A., Martín-Calvo N. Influence of Parental Healthy-Eating Attitudes and Nutritional Knowledge on Nutritional Adequacy and Diet Quality among Preschoolers: The SENDO Project. Nutrients. 2018;10:1875. doi: 10.3390/nu10121875. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types