Do mothers affect daughter’s behaviors? Diet, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors in Kuwaiti mother–daughter dyads

ABSTRACT

The objective of the study was to evaluate 169 Kuwaiti mother–daughter dyads and their associations with health behaviors for eating healthy, engaging in physical activity, daughters perceived body weight, time spent with computer/video, and time viewing television. Female students aged 10–14 years were selected from private and public schools in the State of Kuwait. Results demonstrated that daughters exhibited similar behaviors to their mothers in their perceived eating behavior, physical activity, computer/video game use, and TV screen time. Future research is essential to determine the role of mothers in effective health behavior intervention strategies for female Kuwaiti adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood obesity
• diet
• physical activity
• Kuwait
• mother–daughter dyads

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Research involving Human Participants

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.