Household, Parent, and Child Contributions to Childhood Obesity^*

Abstract

Ongoing increases in adult and child obesity have become a serious public health concern. The current study of 65 parent‐child pairs uses parent‐completed surveys and child Body Mass Index (BMI) to portray the potential family processes that put children at risk and to illustrate the household environment, parenting beliefs, and child characteristics of obese and non‐obese children. Results suggest that efforts to curb childhood obesity should address improving parent knowledge of child nutrition and reducing child television viewing.