Original Article

International Journal of Obesity (2008) 32, 1001–1007; doi:10.1038/ijo.2008.12; published online 26 February 2008

Does maternal concern about children's weight affect children's body size perception at the age of 6.5?—A community-based study

R Mitchell1, M Wake1,2,3, L Canterford1,2 and J Williams1,2,4

  1. 1Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
  2. 2Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia
  3. 3Department of Pediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
  4. 4Centre for Adolescent Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia

Correspondence: Dr R Mitchell, Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia. E-mail: rebecca.mitchell@rch.org.au

Received 26 July 2007; Revised 5 January 2008; Accepted 7 January 2008; Published online 26 February 2008.

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Abstract

Objective

 

Though overweight is often established by school entry, not all mothers of such children report weight concerns. Enhancing concern might assist lifestyle change, but could lead to child body dissatisfaction. We investigated (i) perceived/desired body size and body dissatisfaction in mothers and their 6.5-year-old children, and (ii) the impact of earlier maternal concern about overweight on children's body mass index (BMI) status and body dissatisfaction.

Design

 

Prospective community study.

Setting

 

Melbourne, Australia.

Subjects

 

317 mother–child dyads.

Main exposures

 

Child and maternal BMI (kg m- 2) at 4.0 and 6.5 years; maternal concern about child overweight at 4.0 years.

Outcome measures

 

Paired perceived and desired body size on 7-point figural rating scales self-reported by mothers and children, and reported by mothers regarding children; dissatisfaction ('desired' minus 'perceived') score.

Results

 

For all three actual BMI perceived size pairings (mother self-report, mother's report on child and child self-report), BMI correlated with perceived body size (r=0.82 (mother self-report); r=0.65 (mother reporting on child); r=0.22 (child self-report); all P<0.001). Similarly, all three dissatisfaction scores were greater with increasing BMI status. Children's own dissatisfaction scores correlated with their actual BMI, but were not related to mothers' own body dissatisfaction scores or with mothers' dissatisfaction with children's body size. Maternal concern about overweight at the age of 4 years was not associated with BMI change, or child body dissatisfaction by the age of 6.5. Most mothers of overweight and obese children (88 and 90% , respectively) regarded their child as the middle figure (that is, 4) or thinner.

Conclusions

 

Despite low rates of recognition of child overweight, maternal perceptions of the child's body correlated strongly with the child's actual BMI. Maternal concerns about child BMI did not appear to impact on child BMI change or child body dissatisfaction.

Keywords:

body mass index, body image, child, mothers, longitudinal studies

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