Maternal Ratings of Child Health and Child Obesity, Variations by Mother’s Race, and Ethnicity and Nativity

Elizabeth H. Baker, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Claire Altman, Rice University

Maternal ratings of child health (MRCH) reflect not only child’s actual health, but also the mother’s perception of what contributes to poor child health. This study examines whether cultural orientations among immigrant mothers may be a risk factor for child obesity by examining the associations between MRCH and child obesity by mother’s nativity focusing on Hispanic-origin children using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K) kindergarten-eighth grade waves (n=40,087). Our findings indicate that child obesity did not influence MRCH for foreign-born Hispanic mothers, especially among less acculturated mothers. However, among native-born white, black, and Hispanic mothers, child obesity is associated with a lower likelihood of excellent MRCH after controlling for socioeconomic, family characteristics, and other indicators of child health. Cultural orientations that prefer heavier children or are unlikely to associate child obesity with poor child health may contribute to the higher levels of obesity found among children of immigrants.