Relationship between energy balance-related behaviors and personal and family factors in overweight/obese primary school students aged 10–12 years in China: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Increasing rates of childhood obesity worldwide are a serious threat to the health of school-aged children. Unhealthy behavioral habits are modifiable factors in the control of childhood obesity, and personal and family factors are key influencing factors of behavioral habits in school-aged children. This study assessed the relationship between overweight/obesity, energy balance-related behaviors (EBRB), and their influencing factors in school-aged children. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey included 4412 primary school-aged (10–12 years) students who underwent body tests and were selected through stratified sampling in the Northeast, North, Northwest, and Southwest regions of China from March to July 2021. Independent sample t test was used to compare differences between behaviors and influencing factors of energy balance among overweight/obesity and normal weight students. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the influence of EBRB on body shape. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the influence of personal and family factors on EBRB effects. RESULTS: Compared with normal-weight students, number of breakfasts consumed per week by overweight/obese students was significantly lower (p < 0.01), and weekly screen-viewing time was significantly longer (p < 0.01). Overweight/obese students’ health beliefs, parental subjective norms, parental modelling, parental practices, and home availability scores increased significantly in terms of beverage consumption behavior (p < 0.01 or p < 0.05). Attitude, health beliefs, self-efficacy, parental subjective norms, and parental support scores decreased significantly in terms of breakfast consumption (p < 0.01 or p < 0.05). Health belief scores on physical activity increased significantly (p < 0.01), while preference and autonomy scores decreased significantly (p < 0.01). Health beliefs, parental subjective norms, and parental practices scores of screen-viewing activities increased significantly (p < 0.01 or p < 0.05). Breakfast consumption (odds ratio [OR]: 0.911; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.870–0.954) and screen-viewing activities (OR:1.055; 95% CI: 1.030–1.080) correlated negatively and positively with overweight/obesity, respectively. The main influencing factors of breakfast behavior in overweight/obese students were self-efficacy (0.14), preference (0.11), attitude (0.07), home availability (0.18), and parent modelling (0.09); those for screen-viewing behavior were preference (0.19), self-efficacy (− 0.15), parental practices (0.13), and parental subjective norm (0.12). CONCLUSIONS: Irregular breakfast consumption and excessive screen-viewing time are key EBRB associated with overweight/obesity among these Chinese participants. Their unhealthy breakfast consumption and screen-viewing activities result from a combination of personal and family factors. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-14238-x.