Personal Maternal Body Image Perceptions Their Preschool Children

Hyun, Wha Jin; Hong, Yi Joung

Abstract

This study was performed to investigate body image perceptions of women about themselves and their preschool children and also to investigate the relationship between these perceptions. Subjects were 545 women and their children (279 boys and 268 girls) residing in Daejeon city. 67.7% of women were classified as normal group, 18.6% as overweight group, and 13.8% as underweight group by BMI. 68.5% and 78.7% of their boys and girls, respectively, were classified as normal group, 22.4% and 16.4% as overweight group, 9.1% and 4.9% as underweight group by WLI. Women made relatively accurate judgments on their current body sizes and selected their body images as the most desirable one. But they preferred plumper figures for their children and failed to perceive their overweight children as overweight. While 74.7% of women wished to be thinner, 81.1% of them wished their children to be fatter. Women spending less then 100 thousand won and more than 500 thousand won as monthly food expenses and having only one child perceived their children's current body sizes the lowest and the highest, respectively. Women wished boys to be fatter than girls. Their current body sizes were correlated positively with the children's current body size (p<.01), and their healthiest, attractive, and 'wish' figures were correlated positively with children's current, healthiest, attractive, and 'wish' figures (p<.05 - p<.01). Body size dissatisfaction (wish to be thinner) and BMI of women were correlated negatively with children's healthiest and attractive figures (p<.01). These findings suggest that in order to correct the women's body image misperceptions and to prevent childhood obesity, mother's perception about healthy body images for themselves and their children need to be included in nutrition education. Also, it is necessary to assist mothers to understand the relationship of body size and weight status with the risk of chronic disease which might appear later in their children's life.