Poor Parental Eating Habits Raise Obesity Risk in Children

Parents who alternate between restrictive and impulsive eating behaviors are sending their children mixed messages. According to a 6-year study conducted at the Boston University School of Medicine, these mixed messages may increase the risk of childhood obesity.

Ninety-two children ages 3 to 5 participated in the Framingham Children’s Study. Those whose parents reported high levels of both dietary restraint and disinhibition had the greatest increases in body mass and skinfold thickness by the end of the study. Dietary restraint refers to a conscious restriction of food to control weight, while disinhibition refers to a lack of control over food intake in response to external cues.

“Parents who exhibit both of these behaviors may unconsciously undermine their child’s autonomy in food choices by imposing excessive control over the child’s diet, while at the same time modeling inappropriate eating behaviors,” the study says.

At the study outset, parental eating behaviors were assessed using the Stunkard Messick’s Three Factor Eating Questionnaire, which measures cognitive restraint, disinhibition, and perceived hunger. During the study, each child’s weight, height, skinfold thickness, and body mass index (BMI) were measured annually.

Children of parents with a high level of dietary restraint and a low level of disinhibited eating gained the least amount of body fat, with a 36.9 mm gain in the sum of five skinfold measurements. Disinhibited eating behaviors alone adversely affected body fat change, with a 47.1 mm gain. Children who gained the most body fat, 61.4 mm in sum of skinfolds, had parents who exhibited a strong combination of dietary restraint and disinhibited eating.

To evaluate the possibility of a genetic connection to obesity, researchers also controlled for each parent’s level of body fat. While the study emphasized that this linkage cannot be ruled out, the findings suggest that environmental factors—rather than genetics—largely explain the children’s weight gain.

“These results may help parents to become more aware of their own eating behaviors and attitudes, and the impact their behaviors may unconsciously be having on their children,” said Maggie Y. Hood, M.P.H., the study’s lead author and research coordinator at the medical school’s Section of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology.

Results of the study, funded by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), were published in the September 2000 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, Nature Publishing Group Specialist Journals, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS, UK, www.naturesj.com/ijo. s