Publication Type

Working Paper

Version

Preprint

Publication Date

7-2022

Abstract

Background: Many existing studies have found that social support and health knowledge positively affect an individual's health status. However, it is still unclear how parents’ social support and health knowledge influence their children’s obesity. The present study hypothesizes that parents’ health knowledge has a mediating effect on the relationship between social support and children’s health practice regarding weight management. Methods: To test the hypothesis, we conducted a questionnaire survey in Singapore and collected a nationally representative sample of 1488 household responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) via Stata was used to examine the indirect effects of parents’ social support on children’s health practice. Results: The results of our analysis support our hypothesis. Specifically, (1) parental perceived social support shows a positive relationship with health knowledge (e.g., BMI and nutrition knowledge); (2) parents’ social support and health knowledge positively associate with children’s health practice in weight management (e.g., physical exercises); and (3) a significant amount of indirect effects of parental social support is mediated by parents’ health knowledge. Conclusion: The current study tests a mediation model that bridges social support theories, health knowledge literature, and childhood obesity research. The present study provides fresh evidence from a multi-cultural context to understand the relationships between parents’ health knowledge and social support and children’s obesity-related health practices. Our findings support the argument that social support from parents’ social networks does not necessarily promote health outcomes. The only social support that carries proper health knowledge can facilitate good health practices. The policy implications of promoting health practice through social support and health knowledge are discussed.

Keywords

Childhood obesity, Health knowledge, Health practice, Social support, Social determinants, Weight management

Discipline

Family, Life Course, and Society | Mental and Social Health

Research Areas

Sociology

First Page

1

Last Page

28

ISSN

2693-5015

Identifier

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1802245/v1

Publisher

Research Square

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Comments

Published in Research Square which is a pre-print server and is published in BMC Global Health Research and Policy (2023) DOI: 10.1186/s41256-023-00291-5

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1802245/v1

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