Children
Children’s Perception of Parental Body Size and Its Association with Their Desire to Be Like the Parent
By Abdullah Kaan Kurt and Serdar Karakullukçu.
Abstract
Background
Childhood obesity is a major and growing public health challenge worldwide. Although parental misperception of children’s weight is well documented, how children perceive their parents’ body size and whether parental body size is associated with children’s expressed desire to be like the parent have received little attention. We examined children’s perception of parental body size and whether parental BMI was associated with their expressed desire to be like the parent in a primary care sample.
Methods
This single-center, cross-sectional study included 229 parent–child pairs consecutively recruited from a family medicine outpatient clinic in Türkiye between January and March 2026. Children aged 4–8 years rated the accompanying parent’s body size and reported whether they wanted to be like that parent, while parents independently rated their own body size. The BMI-based Body Size Guide was used for all figure selections, and the classification derived from objectively measured parental BMI served as the primary reference. Agreement was evaluated using Cohen’s kappa coefficients, associations were examined using multivariable logistic regression, and the children’s spontaneous explanations were examined using qualitative content analysis.