Factors associated with parents' intention to follow pediatric recommendations for their child's weight loss

Pediatric health care professionals report that one of the most frequent barriers in the management of childhood obesity is lack of parental involvement. In a cross sectional survey study 100 hundred parents of overweight children between 6-12 years old completed questionnaires after an encounter with their child's health care provider at two urban health care centers. Families were primarily African American and Hispanic. Survey included a Family Demographics Questionnaire, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and the Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire. The variables of parents' self-perceived weight, parents' perceived self-efficacy for child's weight loss, parental depression, and parents' perception of the pediatric provider's weight were assessed for their impact on the parents' intention to make lifestyle changes for their overweight child. Expected results: parents who reported higher levels of depressive symptoms had lower self-efficacy for adherence to provider weight control advice compared to parents who reported lower levels of depressive symptoms. Those parents with greater self-efficacy for adherence to weight loss recommendations were more likely to intend to follow the recommendations than parents with lower self-efficacy. There was no difference in reported intention between parents who perceived the provider to be overweight and parents who perceived the provider to be normal weight. Data from this study could inform future strategies for enhancing providers' communication and counseling techniques for parents of obese children that may affect the family's ability to follow the provider's advice and implement behavior change to prevent and treat pediatric obesity.