Parental Awareness and Perception of Their Children’s Body Size - Open Journal of Medical Psychology

OJMP > Vol.2 No.2, April 2013

Open Journal of Medical Psychology

Volume 2, Issue 2 (April 2013)

ISSN Print: 2165-9370 ISSN Online: 2165-9389

Google-based Impact Factor: 1.25 Citations

Parental Awareness and Perception of Their Children’s Body Size ()

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Download as PDF (Size: 131KB) PP. 77-80

DOI: 10.4236/ojmp.2013.22012 5,047 Downloads 8,110 Views Citations

Author(s)

Jane Allen, Glenda C. Prkachin

Affiliation(s)

Department of Psychology, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, UK.

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate parents’ misperception of their active children’s size. Subjects: One hundred and forty male or female parents and their children from a youth soccer league participated. Actual Child Body Mass Index (BMI) percentiles and BMI categories were compared to the results of a Body Size Estimation Task and lifestyles questionnaire results. Results: Parents underestimated the body size of their children and placed them in a lower BMI category than the children actually belonged in. As was the case in other studies children in the unhealthy or at risk to become overweight category where seen as a healthy weight. Unlike other studies, many healthy weight children were seen as underweight. Conclusions: An explanation of body size misperception and underestimation of body size may be “change blindness”. The growing prevalence of obesity in children may be better addressed by focusing on the parents’ apparent lack of concern about excess childhood weight and the parents’ identification of excess childhood weight as “just normal” rather than seeing excess weight as a potential problem.

KEYWORDS

Perception of Size; Change Blindness; BMI Categories; Childhood

Share and Cite:

Allen, J. and Prkachin, G. (2013) Parental Awareness and Perception of Their Children’s Body Size. Open Journal of Medical Psychology, 2, 77-80. doi: 10.4236/ojmp.2013.22012.

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[3]	Marginalized children and their Education: A study of Parental Awareness towards Child's Rights in Udhampur District
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[4]	Understanding attitude of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes parents towards the rights related to health and care of the children
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[5]	Lasten ylipainon ja motoristen perustaitojen yhteys:-systemaattinen kirjallisuuskatsaus
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