Girls with Self-Control not Necessarily Thin.

• Position: WEIGHT CONTROL

A toddler's self-regulation--the ability to change behavior in different social situations--may predict whether he or she will be obese come kindergarten, but the connection appears to be much different for girls than boys.

Self-regulation is something all children must develop, and poorer self-control in childhood is associated with worse adult health and economic and social outcomes. However, a study in JAMA Pediatrics found that more self-regulation may not necessarily reduce the risk of obesity, especially in girls.

Girls who scored at either the low or the high end on measures of self-regulation when they were two years old were more likely than girls with average self-regulation to be obese at age five, while boys with high self-regulation were less likely to be obese than their peers with low or average self-regulation, the study found.

The difference raises important new questions about the role of gender in the development of childhood obesity, says lead author Sarah Anderson.

"Although we tend to assume that more self-regulation is always a positive, it may not be. People are trying ways to prevent obesity in young children, and some of those approaches involve improving self-regulation. Our study suggests that could have an unintended impact for some girls.

"This study leads one to think about how young children are potentially responding differently to messages and expectations based on whether they are boys or girls. We...