Predictors of body mass index in female parents whose children participate in a competitive, creative, problem-solving program

Figures & data

Fig. 1.  BMI distribution. A total of 1,032 female parents completed our surveys. BMI distribution in each of the following four categories is indicated: underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese.

Table 1. Female parents’ demographic characteristics and descriptive statistics (n=1,032)

	Frequency (n)	%
Race/ethnicity
White	989	95.8
Other	43	4.2
Annual household income
< $25,000	16	1.6
$25,000–$50,000	80	7.8
$50,001–$75,000	140	13.6
$75,001–$100,000	231	22.4
> $100,000	564	54.7
Marital status
Married	949	92.0
Divorced	49	4.8
Widowed	9	0.9
Separated	9	0.9
Never married	10	1.0
Unmarried couple	5	0.5
Descriptive statistics	Mean (SD)	Range
Age in years	43.56 (5.20)	27–62
BMI	25.8 (5.60)	15.81–54.92
Years of education	15.43 (1.09)	12–16
SOC_LADDER	3.88 (1.44)	1–10
COM_LADDER	3.99 (1.53)	1–10

Table 2. Crosstabulation of parents and children weight status

	Children BMI percentile categories
Adult BMI categories	Underweight	Normal weight	Overweight	Obese	Total
Underweight count	2	6	0	0	8
% within BMI categories	25.0	75.0	0.0	0.0	100.0
Normal count	14	366	42	13	435
% within BMI categories	3.2	84.1	9.7	3.0	100.0
Overweight count	2	152	35	21	210
% within BMI categories	1.0	72.4	16.7	10.0	100.0
Obese count	0	83	26	27	136
% within BMI categories	0.0	61.0	19.1	19.9	100.0
Total count	18	607	103	61	789
% within BMI categories	2.3	76.9	13.1	7.7	100.0

Fig. 2.  Fat intake. A validated rapid screener was used to assess fat intake in a subset of the participants (n=681); *p<0.05.

Table 3. Influence of BMI by physical activity, income, social ladder, education, and weight perception as independent variables

	Coefficients^a
	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients
	B	Std. error	Beta	t	Sig.
(Constant)	2.811	0.073		38.620	0.000
PA_TOTAL_ln	−0.022	0.004	−0.101	−5.105	0.000
Income	−0.015	0.004	−0.081	−3.446	0.001
SOC_LADDER	0.008	0.003	0.059	2.494	0.013
Years of education	−0.009	0.004	−0.049	−2.261	0.024
How do you describe your weight?	0.195	0.005	0.741	37.355	0.000

^aDependent variable: BMI_ln.

Table 4. Pearson correlations (two-tailed for various variables)

	Correlations
	BMI_ln	PA_TOT_ln	Income	SOC_LAD-DER	COM_LAD-DER	Education	Weight perception
BMI_ln
Pearson correlation	1	−0.254**	−0.246**	0.267**	0.181**	−0.164**	0.788**
Sig. (two-tailed)		0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
N	1,017	951	1,017	1,017	1,015	1,016	1,016
PA_TOT_ln
Pearson correlation	−0.254**	1	0.077*	−0.132**	−0.104**	0.006	−0.186**
Sig. (two-tailed)	0.000		0.017	0.000	0.001	0.860	0.000
N	951	964	963	964	963	961	963
Income
Pearson correlation	−0.246**	0.077*	1	−0.541**	−0.292**	0.399**	−0.148**
Sig. (two-tailed)	0.000	0.017		0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
N	1,017	9,63	1,031	1,031	1,029	1,029	1,030
SOC_LADDER
Pearson correlation	0.267**	−0.132**	−0.541**	1	0.614**	−0.410**	0.188**
Sig. (two-tailed)	0.000	0.000	0.000		0.000	0.000	0.000
N	1,017	964	1,031	1,032	1,030	1,029	1,031
COM_LADDER
Pearson correlation	0.181**	−0.104**	−0.292**	0.614**	1	−0.245**	0.135**
Sig. (two-tailed)	0.000	0.001	0.000	0.000		0.000	0.000
N	1,015	963	1,029	1,030	1,030	1,027	1,029
Education
Pearson correlation	−0.164**	0.006	0.399**	−0.410**	−0.245**	1	−0.078*
Sig. (two-tailed)	0.000	0.860	0.000	0.000	0.000		0.013
N	1,016	961	1,029	1,029	1,027	1,029	1,028
Weight perception
Pearson correlation	0.788**	−0.186**	−0.148**	0.188**	0.135**	−0.078*	1
Sig. (two-tailed)	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.013
N	1,016	963	1,030	1,031	1,029	1,028	1,031

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).