Parental Stress on Children’s Appearance, Body Dissatisfaction, and Eating Behaviours in Chinese Children: A Pathway Analysis

Figures & data

Table 1 Comparisons of Parental Stress on Children’s Appearance, BMI, Body Dissatisfaction, and Eating Behaviours Between Gender ()

Variables	Boys (n=318)	Girls (n=287)	t value	P value
BMI	19.45±3.72	19.71±5.15	−0.70	0.48
Age	11.37±1.76	11.54±1.80	−1.23	0.22
Parental Teasing	5.42±2.60	5.76±3.20	−1.41	0.16
Parental injustice and ignorance score	6.26±3.31	6.08±3.10	0.68	0.50
Parental encouragement score	7.35±4.27	7.43±4.30	−0.23	0.82
Parental norms and modelling score	7.09±4.15	6.86±3.76	0.71	0.48
Healthy eating behaviour	32.19±8.42	30.44±8.28	2.56	0.01
Unhealthy eating behaviour	12.27±8.92	9.96±7.62	3.44	0.00
Body dissatisfaction	26.54±9.73	28.21±9.70	−2.11	0.03

Abbreviation: BMI, body mass index.

Table 2 Association of BMI, Parental Stress on Children’s Appearance, Body Dissatisfaction, and Eating Behaviour Using Partial Correlation

Variables	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Boys
BMI	1
Body dissatisfaction	0.47**	1
Parental teasing score	0.14*	0.18**	1
Parental injustice and ignorance score	0.17**	0.15**	0.5**	1
Parental encouragement score	0.4**	0.25**	0.47**	0.51**	1
Parental norms and modelling score	0.29**	0.23**	0.39**	0.45**	0.67**	1
Healthy eating behaviour	−0.01	−0.07	−0.06	−0.02	0.06	0.03	1
Unhealthy eating behaviour	0.04	0.10	0.13*	0.09	0.08	0.09	0.14**	1
Girls
BMI	1
Body dissatisfaction	0.38**	1
Parental teasing score	0.03	0.25**	1
Parental injustice and ignorance score	0.12*	0.12*	0.50**	1
Parental encouragement score	0.26**	0.34**	0.43**	0.48**	1
Parental norms and modelling score	0.12*	0.15*	0.33**	0.45**	0.52**	1
Healthy eating behaviour	−0.05	−0.23**	−0.10	−0.15*	−0.12*	−0.12*	1
Unhealthy eating behaviour	−0.06	0.05	0.18*	0.08*	0.09	0.11	−0.01	1

Notes: *P< 0.05; **P < 0.01.

Abbreviation: BMI, body mass index.

Table 3 Association of Parental Stress on Children’s Appearance, BMI, Body Dissatisfaction, and Eating Behaviour Using Multiple Linear Regression

Dependent Variable	Independent Variable	β	S.E.	t value	P value	BC95% CI
						LLCI	ULCI
Boys
Body dissatisfaction	BMI	1.09	0.13	8.27	0.00	0.83	1.35
	Parental teasing score	0.54	0.19	2.87	0.00	0.17	0.91
Unhealthy eating behaviour score	Parental teasing score	0.56	0.19	2.92	0.00	0.18	0.93
Girls
Body dissatisfaction	BMI	0.62	0.10	6.13	0.00	0.42	0.83
	Parental encouragement	0.53	0.14	3.75	0.00	0.25	0.80
	Parental teasing score	0.64	0.19	3.39	0.00	0.27	1.01
	Parental injustice and ignorance score	−0.43	0.20	−2.15	0.03	−0.82	−0.04
Healthy eating behaviour score	Body dissatisfaction	−0.18	0.05	−3.70	0.00	−0.28	−0.09
	Parental injustice and ignorance score	−0.34	0.15	−2.18	0.03	−0.64	−0.03
Unhealthy eating behaviour score	Parental teasing score	0.43	0.14	3.09	0.00	0.16	0.70

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; BC 95% CI, 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals; LLCI, lower limit of 95% CI; ULCI, upper limit of 95%.

Figure 1 Primary association pathways of parental stress on children’s appearance, BMI, body dissatisfaction, and eating behaviour.

Abbreviations: PT, Parental teasing; PII, parental injustice and ignorance; PE, parental encouragement; PNM, parental norms and modelling; HEB, healthy eating behaviours; UHEB, unhealthy eating behaviours; BD, body dissatisfaction; BMI, body mass index.

Table 4 The Model Goodness-of-Fit Indicators

Test Index	X^2/DF	RMSEA	GFI	AGFI	NFI	IFI	TLI	CFI	SRMR
Adaptation standards	<3	<0.08	>0.90	>0.90	>0.90	>0.90	>0.90	>0.90	<0.08
Healthy eating behaviours for girls	1.034	0.011	0.992	0.972	0.980	0.999	0.998	0.999	0.039
Unhealthy eating behaviours for girls	1.012	0.011	0.991	0.973	0.977	1.000	0.999	1.000	0.038
Unhealthy eating behaviours for boys	1.559	0.007	0.986	0.961	0.972	0.990	0.978	0.990	0.031

Abbreviations: χ², Chi-square; DF, Degrees of Freedom; χ2/DF, Relative chi-square; RMSEA, Root mean square error of approximation; GFI, Goodness-of-fit index; AGFI, Adjusted goodness -of-fit index; NFI, Normed fit index; IFI, Incremental fix index; TLI, Tucker Lewis index; CFI, Comparative fit index; SRMR, Standardized root mean square residual; CFI, Comparative fit index.

Figure 2 Path diagram of parental stress on children’s appearance, BMI, body image dissatisfaction, and eating behaviour.

Notes: The solid line indicates that the standard direct effect was significant, and the dashed line indicates that the standard direct effect between the two was not significant.

Abbreviations: PT, Parental teasing; PII, parental injustice and ignorance; PE, parental encouragement; PNM, parental norms and modelling; HEB, healthy eating behaviours; UHEB, unhealthy eating behaviours; BD, body dissatisfaction; BMI, body mass index.