Mexican American Mothers' Perceptions of Childhood Obesity: A Theory-Guided Systematic Literature Review

• Published in: Health education & behavior Vol. 39; no. 4; pp. 396 - 404
• Main Author: Sosa, Erica T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.08.2012; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Barriers; Body Mass Index; Child; Child, Preschool; Childhood; Children; Children & youth; Diet; Education; Epistemology; Ethnic groups; Exercise; Female; Focus Groups; Health (behavior); Health Education; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Heterogeneous Grouping; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Inclusive education; Knowledge; Literature reviews; Male; Mexican American people; Mexican Americans; Mexican Americans - psychology; Modeling; Mother Attitudes; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Obese children; Obesity; Obesity - ethnology; Obesity - prevention & control; Obesity - therapy; Objectives; Parent Role; Perception; Perceptions; Prevention; Preventive health; Preventive programmes; Reviews; Role Models; Social Cognition; Social Theories; Systematic review; Weight control; nutrition; physical activity/exercise; child health; family health; Latino; race/ethnicity
• ISSN: 1090-1981; 1552-6127
• DOI: 10.1177/1090198111398129

Childhood obesity continues to increase, disproportionately affecting Mexican American children. The aims of this review are to (a) assess the literature regarding Mexican American mothers' knowledge and perceptions of childhood obesity, prevention, and their role in prevention; (b) critically evaluate the methodological quality of the research conducted on mothers' perceptions of childhood obesity; and (c) make recommendations for future research on parental perceptions of childhood obesity. Four databases were searched for relevant articles and 22 studies met inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Social cognitive theory was used to sort findings across studies. Major findings included the following: (a) barriers to childhood obesity prevention included lack of education regarding prevention and role modeling, (b) only 23% of studies explicitly used a theoretical framework to guide their study, and (c) most studies used heterogeneous groups to examine perceptions. Implications for future research and practice are presented.