Household, parent, and child contributions to childhood obesity

Ongoing increases in adult and child obesity have become a serious public h ealth concern. The current study of 65 parent-child pairs uses parent-compl eted surveys and child Body Mass Index (BMI) to portray the potential famil y processes that put children at risk and to illustrate the household envir onment, parenting beliefs, and child characteristics of obese and non-obese children. Results suggest that efforts to curb childhood obesity should ad dress improving parent knowledge of child nutrition and reducing child tele vision viewing.