3.1. Background Characteristics
overweight
OBESE
A total of 73 parents with children were included in this study. The majority (56.2%) of children were female, with an average age of 26.51 ± 8.48 months. Twenty-seven (36.9%) children were biracial, followed by Hispanic (23.3%), Non-Hispanic White (21.9%), Black (16.4%), and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders (1.4%). About one-third of children were overweight (21.9%) or obese (13.7%). The average BMI-for-age z scores of children were 1.03 ± 1.88 and 0.71 ± 1.41 in the intervention and control groups, respectively. There were no significant differences in child demographic and anthropometric characteristics between the study groups (Most parents were mothers (84.9%), and only 20.5% obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher. Almost half of the parents were never married (49.3%). The average yearly household income was USD 26,436.97 ± 17,524.52 among the participating families. The majority of households had very low (56.1%) or low (13.7%) household income levels. The average parental BMI was 31.71 ± 8.34, with most participants being obese (46.6%) or overweight (34.2%). Parental BMI was significantly higher in the control group. No significant differences were found in other parental and household characteristics between the study groups at baseline (