Abstract

Obesity is a critical public health issue in the United States, which disproportionately affects Latinx youth compared to youth in other racial/ethnic groups. While research suggests fathers can influence their children’s dietary intake and physical activity behaviors, few studies have included fathers in pediatric obesity studies and examined what mechanisms shape youth health outcomes. A greater understanding about fathers’ role modeling and expectations for their youth can provide critical evidence in addressing Latinx youth health outcomes. This research examined the extent to which fathers’ role modeling, expectations, family congruence, and warmth relate to youth energy balance-related behaviors. This study used cross-sectional data collected at baseline before Latinx fathers and children entered an obesity prevention program (n = 193). Latent moderation structural analyses tested the theorized pathways based on Palkovitz’s conceptual framework of father involvement, including youth age and sex as covariates. Fathers’ physical activity role modeling significantly predicted youth moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, p = 0.002. Fathers’ warmth significantly moderated vegetable role modeling, β = 0.263, p = 0.019. By testing Palkovitz’s conceptual framework of father involvement, this study increases the understanding about the theorized pathways between fathers’ role modeling/expectations and youth health outcomes.

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