Childhood Obesity among Puerto Rican Children: Discrepancies Between Child’s and Parent’s Perception of Weight Status

Public concern about childhood obesity and associated health problems calls for the identification of modifiable factors that could halt this epidemic. Parental perceptions of their children’s weight status could be associated to how parents influence children’s eating patterns. We aimed to identify the perceptions Puerto Rican parents have of their children’s weight and children’s own perceptions of weight status as compared to real weight. A cross sectional survey was performed in a representative sample of 1st–6th grade students. Only half of the children correctly identified their weight, and only 62.4% of the parents correctly classified their children’s weight. Most obese/overweight children did not perceive themselves as such. Almost half of obese/overweight children were identified by the parents as normal weight while over half of the underweight children were perceived by their parents at normal weight. More girls than boys perceived themselves as obese/overweight and more parents of girls than of boys perceived them as such. Higher-educated parents were better at recognizing overweight/obesity among their children compared to less-educated parents. This study suggests an influence of parents’ SES characteristics on their perceptions of children’s weight status as well as on children’s own perceptions of their weight status

Adolescentes de Puerto Rico: Una mirada a su salud mental y su asociación con el entorno familiar y escolar

Los estados de salud mental afectan el bienestar emocional, psíquico y social de los/as adolescentes. Las manifestaciones bajo estos estados afectan su vida personal y social. Influyen en la manera en cómo piensan, sienten y actúan cuando lidian con la vida. El objetivo de este trabajo fue examinar las prevalencias de algunas de las sintomatologías de salud mental y su relación con las relaciones interpersonales de los/as jóvenes en la familia y la escuela. Los datos provienen de la encuesta nacional Consulta Juvenil VIII, en la que participaron 10,235 estudiantes entre séptimo a duodécimo grado de escuelas públicas y privadas de Puerto Rico. El 15.7% de los/as estudiantes reportaron síntomas de déficit de atención e hiperactividad, el 13.4% de depresión mayor, el 8.3% ideación suicida y 6.9% trastornos de conducta. Se encontraron diferencias significativas por género y nivel escolar para todas las conductas examinadas. Las féminas presentaron mayor prevalencia de ideación suicida (11.4%) y depresión mayor (17.7%) que los varones. Los resultados señalan la importancia de las relaciones interpersonales entre los/as jóvenes, sus padres/madres y maestros/as. Un manejo adecuado por parte de la familia y la escuela puede hacer la diferencia en la salud mental de los adolescentes