Racial-Ethnic Differences in Parental Body Image Perceptions of Preschoolers

Parental misperception of minority preschoolers’ body image remains a major barrier to obesity prevention. Differences in child body image perception between Latino and African-American parents may inform etiologies to obesity disparities. Using pooled data from studies implementing validated child body sketches, frequency of parental misperception in these two populations are analyzed and associations with provider commentary and parental acculturation reported. Two convenience samples were utilized (Latino parents: n=73, African-American parents: n=150). Over half of Latino parents (58%) compared to 5% of African-American parents misperceived their obese child as lighter than a healthy weight (p=.002). In contrast to our prior study, provider commentary was not associated with reduced risk of misperception in Latino parents. Misperception occurred most frequently in mild-moderately acculturated Latino parents. Increased rates of misperception and limitations on the potential role of the provider commentary indicate a critical need to better strategize communication with low-income, moderately acculturated Latino parents.