Association between parental self-efficacy for childhood obesity prevention, parents' gender and education, and children's educational level

Abstract

Parents have a fundamental role in the formation of their children's habits, including habits related to childhood obesity, thus it becomes attractive to investigate how capable parents think they are in preventing childhood obesity. This is a quantitative exploratory descriptive research. The survey included 747 parents, 55% male and 45% female, with a mean age of 36 years. In the results we saw that fathers consider themselves moderately capable, mothers showed more robust self-efficacy, the increase in the level of education of the fathers, tends to an increase in the belief, the increase in the level of education of the children, showed that there is a tendency to a decrease in the belief. It is concluded that parental self-efficacy is important in preventing childhood obesity.