Individual, family and social-related factors of eating behavior among Chinese children with overweight or obesity from the perspective of family system

• Published in: Frontiers in pediatrics 2024-02, Vol.12, p.1305770-1305770
• Main Authors: Zhu, Hanfei, Zhao, Kang, Huang, Lidong, Shi, Wenbing, Tang, Chulei, Xu, Ting, Zhu, Shuqin, Xu, Qin, Li, Xiaonan, Chen, Yinhua, Liu, Qianqi, Yang, Linhui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: cross-sectional study; eating behavior; family system theory; influencing factors; pediatric obesity; Pediatrics
• ISSN: 2296-2360; 2296-2360
• DOI: 10.3389/fped.2024.1305770

The purpose of the present study is to examine the factors contributing to the development of eating behavior in overweight and obese children from the perspective of the family system. A cross-sectional survey was conducted by using convenience sampling method to select 388 participants in two primary schools in Jiangsu, China. Individual, family and social-related factors were collected. Individual factors included age, gender, ethnicity, single child, social anxiety, depression, physical activity, sleep duration, screen time. Family factors included family environment, family structure, family function, family income, parenting style, parental feeding behavior, home food environment and marital satisfaction. Social-related factors included place of residence, number of surrounding restaurants and social support. Univariate analysis, correlation analysis and multivariate analysis were used to identify factors of eating behavior among Chinese children with overweight and obese. In this study, 388 participants took part with a 94.865% response rate. In the univariate analysis, the significant differences regarding Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) scores were found between children aged 6-9 years and those aged >9 years. Correlation analysis indicated that parent's nutrition literacy (  = 0.118,