Abstract:
As a fundamental aspect of parenting, serving as a role model is crucial in shaping children's behavior and attitudes. Given the influence of parents on their children's health behaviors, it is important to understand how parents' eating habits impact their children's dietary choices. The way parents perceive their teenage child's weight status has the potential to impact the messages and attitudes surrounding weight, eating habits, and physical activity within the family. This study explores parents’ perception of, and views about their adolescents’ weight management.
Purposive random sampling was used to select six (6) religious places with Christian affiliation in Ibadan North Local Government. A total of 50 adolescents and 50 parents (specifically mothers and/or guardians) were selected from the study area to participate in the study. A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on the respondents' socio-demographic characteristics, dietary habits, lifestyle, and physical activities were also collected, while anthropometric data were measured. The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 17, while descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. Atlas.ti package (version 9.0) software was used for qualitative analysis
The majority of participating parents (58%) were civil servants, while 18.8% were self-employed and others were artisans. A significant difference in nutritional status was found between the children and their parents (p<0.001). The average nutritional status of the children was 9.36 times lower than the average nutritional status of the parents. WHO Body Mass Index results for the parents indicated that 28% were within the normal range, while 70% were classified as overweight or obese. More than half of the adolescents (62%) had a normal BMI, while 30% were underweight, which was attributed to poor dietary habits, including consuming low-nutrient-density street foods in between meals and deliberately skipping meals out of concern for avoiding overweight or obesity. From interviews with parents about their perceptions of their children's weight, significant concerns were expressed about their children's weight and how they manage it. The findings from this study suggest that adolescents in the study area are conscious of their body sizes and shapes, which may have been influenced by their desire to have a model stature, their parents' stature, or their personal decisions regarding their eating habits. Some of the adolescent respondents were found to be underweight, which was associated with poor dietary habits such as consuming mainly street foods in between meals, skipping meals, and being conscious of not wanting to be overweight or obese. Parents' perceptions and views on their children's weight and weight management were patterned on giving healthy food and encouraging good dietary habits.
Therefore, there is a need to promote healthy lifestyle and dietary habit modification among adolescents and their parents in order to reduce the increasing rate of poor weight management and associated risks and complications among adolescents.
Keywords: Weight, Attitude, Adolescents, Parent, Perception
