Journal of Child and Family Studies

, Volume 26, Issue 9, pp 2363–2373 | Cite as

Asian Parents’ Perception of Child Weight Status: A Systematic Review

Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

Parental perception of a child’s weight is important in determining parenting and feeding styles, which relate to childhood obesity. Evidence suggests this perception can vary by ethnicity. The purpose of this review was to explore Asian parents’ child weight perception and examine factors related to Asian parents’ child weight misperception. A systematic literature review was conducted on eight studies between 2000 and 2016 through the databases of CINAHL, Cochrane Reviews, PsycINFO, Medline, and PubMed. Searching key words were Asians, Asian-Americans, weight perception, and parents. The review revealed that all eight studies identified child weight misperception, but with highly varying results (ranging from 29.7 to 89.2%). Factors that influenced the accuracy of a parent’s child weight perception included maternal BMI, parental gender and age, child’s BMI, child’s own weight perception, child’s gender and age, and child’s birth order and birth weight. Misperception about their children’s weight is prevalent among Asian parents. Anthropometric measurement of a child, rather than a parent’s reporting of a child’s weight, should be used to educate Asian parents regarding childhood obesity. Health care professionals should be aware of misperceptions when developing and providing a culturally appropriate intervention to address overweight/obesity among Asian children, which might include improving weight perception.

Keywords

Childhood obesity Asian Asian-Americans Weight perception Parents 
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Notes

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The author declare that she has no competing interests.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.College of NursingFlorida State UniversityTallahasseeUSA

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