The goal of this investigation is to compare subjects from two cultures to determine the degree to which certain factors are related to obesity in Mexican American preschool children and Anglo preschool children.
The specific aims are to answer the following questions: To what extent is obesity in Mexican American and Anglo preschool children related to: 1) maternal nutritional knowledge as measured by scores on the Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaries? 2) maternal feeding practices as measured by scores on the Maternal Feeding Practices questionnaire 3) maternal values of: a) perceived degree of personal control over body weight as measured by scores on the Weight Locus of Control Scale? b) perceived ideal infant body size as measured by scores on the Ideal Infant Body Habitus Scale? 4) socioeconomic status as measured by Green's Socioeconomic Scale? 5) degree of maternal acculturation as measured by Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans? and 6) other select demographic variables including: sex of child, birth order, birth weight, whether breast fed or bottle fed, age of introduction of solid foods, weight status of siblings, maternal body mass index, marital status of mother, presence of male in household and person responsible for the child's food intake? A correlational descriptive design will be utilized. A sample of 180 mexican American children, 3-5 years old, and their mothers, and a sample of 180 Anglo children, 3-5 year old, and their mothers will participate in the study. Questionnaires which address the study questions will be administered to the mothers of each child participating in the study. Obesity will be measured as a continuous variable using the measurements of triceps skinfold thickness and weight for height. age and sex. Chi- square, t-test and the Hotelling's T square statistics will be used American, Anglo) in terms of the mean scores on the questionnaires and scales. The variance in the dependent variable (the degree of obesity) will be analyzed in terms of the effect of the independent variables of maternal nutritional knowledge: maternal feeding practices: maternal values of: 1) perceived degree of personal control over body weight, 2) perceived ideal infant body size: socioeconomic status, degree of acculturation and other select demographic variables by the use of multiple linear regression analysis. Findings will provide a research base for the development of intervention studies.
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