Background: Childhood obesity is a national epidemic that disproportionately affects Hispanic children. Evidence suggests that increased acculturation among this population adversely affects diet and other healthy lifestyle characteristics, leading to higher rates of overweight and obesity. Healthy lifestyle characteristics must be understood in…

Previous research fails to find a consistent association between obesity and acculturation for children. We theorize that social isolation shelters children of immigrants from the U.S. "obesiogenic" environment, but this protective effect is offset by immigrant parents' limited capacity to identify and manage this health risk in the United States.…