Mexican American Mothers’ Perceptions of Childhood Obesity

Abstract

Childhood obesity continues to increase, disproportionately affecting Mexican American children. The aims of this review are to (a) assess the literature regarding Mexican American mothers' knowledge and perceptions of childhood obesity, prevention, and their role in prevention; (b) critically evaluate the methodological quality of the research conducted on mothers' perceptions of childhood obesity; and (c) make recommendations for future research on parental perceptions of childhood obesity. Four databases were searched for relevant articles and 22 studies met inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Social cognitive theory was used to sort findings across studies. Major findings included the following: (a) barriers to childhood obesity prevention included lack of education regarding prevention and role modeling, (b) only 23% of studies explicitly used a theoretical framework to guide their study, and (c) most studies used heterogeneous groups to examine perceptions. Implications for future research and practice are presented.

A Positive Deviance Approach to Early Childhood Obesity: Cross-Sectional Characterization of Positive Outliers

“…[20][21][22] The finding that parents of overweight and obese children misclassify their children as normal or even underweight has been found before. 17,23,24 In studies of Hispanic populations, a general acceptance or even preference for heavier weight has been found, [25][26][27] though 60% of the parents of obese children in our study wanted their child to be smaller. Factors associated with a lower ability of accurately classifying a child's weight are parental income, education, Hispanic ethnicity, and the age of the child being less than 4 years.…”

Exploring the Nutrition and Physical Activity Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors of Low-Income Parents of Peruvian Preschool Children

“…While Peruvian parents were more likely than other groups of Hispanic parents to correctly identify their weight status (Sosa, 2012), similar findings of Peruvian parents of overweight children have been reported in other groups of Hispanic parents of overweight children. In both Chaparro (2011) andAriza (2004) studies of predominantly Mexican-American mothers of overweight children and Hirschler's study (2006) of Argentinian mothers of overweight three to five year olds, they also found that the majority of these mothers were unable to identify their child as being overweight (Ariza, et al, 2004, Hirchler et al, 2006.…”

“…While there is extensive literature on Hispanic parents and their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about obesity and obesity prevention, much of it is focused on Mexican-American parents (Sosa, 2012). Unfortunately, there is a dearth of information in the literature examining the influence of culture on Peruvian parent's perceptions about obesity preventive behaviors (Caprio, Daniels, Drewnowski, Kaufman, Palinkas, Rosenbloom and Schwimmer, 2008).…”

Latina mothers feeding their children: A focus group pilot study

“…While this is not unique among Latinos, many Latinos perceive excess weight as representing a healthy, strong, and safe child [15]. Mothers often consider heavier children safer-less fragile-than thinner children.…”