Poverty and parenting style ‘can affect childhood obesity’

Parenting styles and broader social environmental factors can all affect a child's risk of obesity, according to new research.

Carried out by Concordia University, the study involved a national survey of Canadian youths from 1994 to 2008, with information on 37,577 children examined. Socio-demographic and socio-economic status, family and neighbourhood characteristics were all assessed, alongside height and weight.

Preschool and school-age children with authoritarian parents were 35 per cent and 41 per cent more likely to be obese than those with authoritative parents.

Household income, meanwhile, had an effect for the younger preschool-age cohort. Among those living in poverty, the risk of being obese was 20 percent greater compared with those not living in poverty, regardless of parenting style.

It was theorised that authoritarian parenting may translate to parents not responding to children's cues of hunger or feeling full, harming the child's ability to regulate their own energy intake and encouraging later overindulgence.

Study leader Lisa Kakinami, an assistant professor in Concordia University's department of mathematics and statistics, said: "Successful strategies to combat childhood obesity need to reflect these independent and interactive associations on health."