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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research article

Association of parental social support with energy balance-related behaviors in low-income and ethnically diverse children: a cross-sectional study

Authors: Natalia I. Heredia, Nalini Ranjit, Judith L. Warren, Alexandra E. Evans

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2016

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Abstract

Background

Parents play an important role in providing their children with social support for healthy eating and physical activity. However, different types of social support (e.g., instrumental, emotional, modeling, rules) might have different results on children’s actual behavior. The purpose of this study was to assess the association of the different types of social support with children’s physical activity and eating behaviors, as well as to examine whether these associations differ across racial/ethnic groups.

Methods

We surveyed 1169 low-income, ethnically diverse third graders and their caregivers to assess how children’s physical activity and eating behaviors (fruit and vegetable and sugar-sweetened beverage intake) were associated with instrumental social support, emotional social support, modeling, rules and availability of certain foods in the home. We used sequential linear regression to test the association of parental social support with a child’s physical activity and eating behaviors, adjusting for covariates, and then stratified to assess the differences in this association between racial/ethnic groups.

Results

Parental social support and covariates explained 9–13% of the variance in children’s energy balance-related behaviors. Family food culture was significantly associated with fruit and vegetable and sugar-sweetened beverage intake, with availability of sugar-sweetened beverages in the home also associated with sugar-sweetened beverage intake. Instrumental and emotional support for physical activity were significantly associated with the child’s physical activity. Results indicate that the association of various types of social support with children’s physical activity and eating behaviors differ across racial/ethnic groups.

Conclusions

These results provide considerations for future interventions that aim to enhance parental support to improve children’s energy balance-related behaviors.
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Metadata
Title
Association of parental social support with energy balance-related behaviors in low-income and ethnically diverse children: a cross-sectional study
Authors
Natalia I. Heredia
Nalini Ranjit
Judith L. Warren
Alexandra E. Evans
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3829-8

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