Answer:
The study sample consisted of 1940 parents/caregivers. Only 0.2% of parents reported their child as being obese; 8.6% reported their child as being overweight. Most parents perceived their child to be physically active and eating healthily. Approximately 25% of parents reported that their child spent 2 h/day or more in front of a screen, and that their child consumed less than three servings of fruits and vegetables daily, and regularly consumed fast food. Variables that correlated with PA perceptions included time spent reading/doing homework, interest in PA, perceived importance of PA, frequency of PA, level of parental PA, participation in organized sport, child weight and parental concern for weight. Variables that predicted perceptions regarding healthy eating were parental education, household income, preparation of home-cooked meals, fruit and vegetable intake, and concern for and influence on the child’s weight.
Step-by-step explanation:
Inactivity and poor dietary practices are widespread among today’s youth, and experts believe that increasing obesity rates are reflective of an obesogenic social environment. Many factors contribute to the development of such a social setting including greater access to sedentary leisure time activities, lower rates of active transportation, perceived unsafe environments for outdoor play and pressures on schools to place a greater emphasis on academic achievement at the expense of physical education. An increased exposure to poor-quality food due to an overabundance of nutritionally unbalanced snacks, convenience and fast foods (9); superfluous advertising of nutrient-poor, high-sugar foods aimed at children (10); and the lower cost of calorically dense, less nutritionally valuable food choices (11) are also considered to be important contributing factors to this modern epidemic. Parents and the family have considerable influence over their children’s physical activity (PA) and eating behaviours (12–16). Awareness that their child is at risk or has poor lifestyle habits is an important prerequisite for the motivation to act (17); between 60% and 80% of parents fail to recognize their child’s status as overweight or obese and, furthermore, the majority do not report concern for their child’s health (18–22). Thus, those less-concerned parents are unlikely to take steps to provide a healthier lifestyle or environment for their children. However, little is known about the factors that influence parents’ perceptions of their child’s weight, PA and eating habits.