Childhood Overweight and the Relationship between Parent Behaviors, Parenting Style, and Family Functioning

• Author: Kyung Rhee
• Published date: 01 January 2008
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716207308400
• Date: 01 January 2008
• Subject Matter: Articles

12 ANNALS, AAPSS, 615, January 2008

This article discusses the relationship between parent

behaviors, parenting style, and how a family functions

with respect to the development of childhood over-

weight. Parents can influence a child’s weight through

specific feeding and activity practices and perhaps more

broadly through their parenting style and management of

family functioning. These more global influences of par-

enting style and family functioning provide a framework

in which specific parent behaviors can be interpreted by

the child. Therefore, understanding the impact of spe-

cific parent behaviors within the context of parenting

style and family functioning needs to be explored. This

article highlights the pervasive influence of parents

around the development of dietary habits, and suggests

that additional efforts to examine the interaction between

specific feeding behaviors and parenting style/family

functioning should be promoted to better inform the

development of interventions that may help stem the

growing prevalence of obesity among our children.

Keywords: childhood overweight; feeding practices;

parenting style; family functioning

The prevalence of childhood overweight has

more than tripled in the past several decades

and, according to data from the 2003–2004

National Health and Nutrition Examination

Surveys (NHANES), continues to rise (Ogden,

Carroll, et al. 2006; Ogden, Flegal, et al. 2002).

Currently 17 percent of U.S. children aged two

to nineteen years are overweight (body mass

index [BMI] for age and gender ≥95th per-

centile by the Centers for Disease Control

National Center for Health Statistics norms)

(Kuczmarski et al. 2002), and nearly another

17 percent are at risk for overweight (BMI for

age and gender ≥85th but <95th percentile)

Childhood

Overweight and

the

Relationship

between Parent

Behaviors,

Parenting Style,

and Family

Functioning

By

KYUNG RHEE

Kyung Rhee, MD, MS, is an assistant professor of pedi-

atrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown

University and conducts pediatric obesity research at

the Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center at

the Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine.

Her interest is in the impact of parenting style on the

development of childhood overweight and the role of

parental warmth and involvement in the success of

pediatric weight control interventions.

DOI: 10.1177/0002716207308400

(Ogden et al. 2006). Looking more closely at these trends, a significant jump in the

prevalence of children at risk for overweight and overweight children occurs

between preschool (ages two to five) and grade school (ages six to eleven) years (26

to 37 percent) (Ogden et al. 2006). Early interventions that promote the develop-

ment of healthy habits may help to reduce this rise in prevalence. Given the wide

range of influence parents have over children in this early time period, it makes

sense to target parents in childhood obesity prevention efforts.

Many factors have been attributed to the overall rise in obesity, including

changes in dietary habits, the availability of high-calorie nutrient-poor foods,

increasing portion sizes, frequent patronage of fast-food establishments, increas-

ing time in front of the TV or computer, and the lack of physical activity at school

and at home (Hill and Peters 1998). But something closer to the child can poten-

tially mediate or buffer the impact of many of these factors: the parent. Parents

play an important role in the growth, development, and socialization of children

(Darling and Steinberg 1993). Parents influence their children through the use

of specific parenting practices, modeling specific behaviors and attitudes, and

more broadly through their interpersonal interactions within the family. They

also create a home environment that promotes certain behaviors, expectations,

beliefs, and social norms. Because of this overarching influence, parents play an

important role in the prevention and treatment of childhood overweight. Not

only can parents influence the development of eating and activity behaviors

through the use of specific feeding techniques and the modeling of healthy

dietary and leisure-time activity habits, but they also have direct control over the

home environment and what foods or activities are available in the house.

Parenting goes beyond just shaping and reinforcing specific behaviors. The

socioemotional environment created in the home through specific parenting

styles and attitudes toward food and sedentary behaviors can assist in the devel-

opment of a healthier approach toward weight-related domains with presumably

lifelong impacts. Research examining the influence of parents on childhood over-

weight has expanded in recent years to include the area of parenting style and

family functioning (Moens, Braet, and Soetens 2007; Rhee et al. 2006; van der

Horst et al. 2007; Zeller et al. 2007). Through this work, we have begun to under-

stand the potential scope of parental influence on the development and treat-

ment of childhood overweight. However, the relationship between specific

parent behaviors and more global influences like parenting style or family func-

tioning has not been examined. Through the exploration of this interaction, the

relationship between parents and children with regards to the development and

treatment of obesity may be more clearly defined.

This article will explore the relationship between three levels of parental influ-

ence as it impacts dietary behaviors and the development of childhood over-

weight: (1) specific parent feeding practices that are targeted toward the child

with the intent to shape eating behaviors and intake; (2) general parent behaviors

which are not necessarily targeted at the child, such as food availability and parent

modeling, but also influence the development of child behaviors; and (3) global

influences like parenting style and family functioning that shape the socioemotional

CHILDHOOD OVERWEIGHT AND FAMILY FUNCTIONING 13