Association of parenting style, parental feeding practice and childhood overweight/obesity

The role of parenting is particularly critical for young children because parents directly determine the child’s physical activities and social environment and indirectly influence behaviors, habits, and attitudes through socialization processes. To examine the relationship between obesity in children and obesity in adulthood, we reviewed the epidemiologic literature published 2000 and May 2016. A review of recent literature regarding child-feeding behaviors and child weight. Literature searches in PubMed, Proquest, Informit, PsychInfo, and Geobase were conducted. Fifteen quantitative studies met the inclusion criteria for this Literature review. The majority of studies were cross-sectional and published after 2006. About a third (26-41%) of obese preschool children were obese as adults. For all studies, the risk of childhood obesity was at least twice as high for obese parent as for nonobese parent. Parents report using a wide range of child-feeding behaviors, including monitoring, pressure to eat and restriction. Restriction of children’s eating has most frequently and consistently been associated with child weight gain. Furthermore, there is substantial evidence for a causal relationship between parental restriction and childhood overweight. Parents may inadvertently promote excess weight gain in childhood by using inappropriate child-feeding behaviors. We recommend the development of interventions to increase awareness of the possible consequences of inappropriate child-feeding behaviors. Parents who are concerned about their child’s weight will also require guidance and support in order to adopt more appropriate child-feeding behaviors.

کلیدواژه ها:

Body mass index ، Children ، Overweight ، Lifestyle ، Physical activity ، Feeding behaviors