Overweight and Obesity in America's Children: Causes, Consequences, Solutions

• Date: 01 January 2008
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716207311669
• Published date: 01 January 2008
• Subject Matter: Articles

226 ANNALS, AAPSS, 615, January 2008

QUICK READ SYNOPSIS

Overweight and Obesity in America’s Children:

Causes, Consequences, Solutions

Special Editor: AMY B. JORDAN

The Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania

Volume 615, January 2008

Prepared by Herb Fayer, Jerry Lee Foundation

DOI: 10.1177/0002716207311669

Childhood Overweight and the Relationship

between Parent Behaviors, Parenting Style,

and Family Functioning

Kyung Rhee, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Background This article will explore the relationship between three levels of parental

influence and its impact on dietary behaviors and the development of child-

hood overweight:

•specific parent feeding practices that are targeted toward the child with

the intent to shape eating behaviors and intake;

•general parent behaviors that are not necessarily targeted at the child,

such as food availability and parent modeling, but that also influence the

development of child eating behaviors; and

•global influences like parenting style and family functioning that shape the

socioemotional environment at home.

NOTE: Understanding the scope of parental influence may help to improve

our efforts to prevent and treat childhood obesity.

Parent Behaviors Parents can shape their children’s food preferences by exposing them to

healthy foods at home and making them more easily accessible.

•Increasing the accessibility of fruits and vegetables can be helpful in

increasing the consumption of these foods, particularly among children

with low initial preferences for these foods.

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•Helping parents increase availability and accessibility of targeted foods is

important since it appears to increase the likelihood that children will eat

these foods and can predict future consumption.

•Teaching parents to serve age-appropriate portions for children may be

very beneficial and help children adjust their intake.

Modeling Parents can indirectly influence their children’s eating habits by modeling

good eating behaviors.

•The impact of modeling may also be enhanced by positive social responses

that are tied to the food and eating environment.

•Unfortunately, modeling of negative behaviors can have an equally strong

but opposite effect and has been associated with the development of emo-

tional eating, snacking, and body dissatisfaction.

•Studies demonstrate that parents can indirectly shape child behaviors

through modeling. Encouraging parents to adopt healthy behaviors them-

selves may aid in our efforts to curb childhood obesity.

Parenting Style Parenting style is the general pattern of parenting that provides the emo-

tional background in which parent behaviors are expressed and interpreted

by the child.

•It has been suggested that behavior delivered within the context of a more

positive parenting style will have a different impact on the child than one

delivered in a more negative parenting style.

•A positive parenting style, namely, the authoritative parenting style, is

classified by high displays of sensitivity, emotional warmth, and involve-

ment by the parent as well as high expectations and demands for maturity

and self-control from the child.

•This parenting style has been associated with positive childhood out-

comes such as higher academic achievement, increased self-regulatory

ability, more frequent use of adaptive strategies, fewer depressive

symptoms, and fewer risk-taking behaviors.

•A critical dimension of parenting style is parental warmth and sensitivity

toward the child. This dimension of maternal sensitivity is independently

associated with a lower risk of child overweight by first grade.

•Another study lends evidence to support the idea that the use of spe-

cific behavior modification strategies may be more effective when the

child perceives greater involvement or warmth from the parent.

Family A broader dimension that may impact the ability of parents to control their

Functioning child’s weight is family functioning.

•While poor family functioning has been related to poorer adherence to

treatment in families with cystic fibrosis and diabetes, its role in pediatric

overweight management has not been thoroughly explored.

•Some studies suggest that families of obese children are more conflicted

and less cohesive.

•Moens et al. (2007) found that parents with overweight children used

more maladaptive control or management strategies regarding food than

parents with nonoverweight children.

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