A new study has found that positive parenting can help to reduce obesity rates. When we think of parenting and child development, we may underestimate how much is connected. How parenting styles and attitudes can impact the health and wellbeing of a child. This goes for their mental health and their physical health. Childhood obesity is a large problem across the US, and a lot of the world and researchers are always looking for ways to reduce the rates and prevent it from happening in the first place. Childhood obesity can have large impacts on a child’s health, both now and in the future.According to Medical Xpress, a study was done that shows that positive parenting can reduce the risk that children develop obesity. This study was done by researchers from Pennsylvania State University, and it can be read in full here.The study found that children who had positive, early interactions with their parents or anyone who was providing care were at a reduced risk of developing obesity. What they categorized as “positive” was warmth, responsiveness, and a stimulating home environment.Brandi Rollins was one of the researchers, and she stated that there is always a lot of discussion around childhood obesity, and it looks at identifying and studying the exposure to risk. What they found was that having a warm and supportive home environment can help to counteract some other risk factors, which would make children less likely to develop obesity. To complete the study, the researchers looked at 1,000 pairs of mothers and their children. They found that early exposure to a warm and positive family environment, with warmth from mom, reduced the risk of obesity. They also found that a child’s ability to self-regulate their emotions also played a large part.
This study may be touching on the idea that there are individuals out there, children included, that tend to overeat when they are struggling with a hard time. That food is used as a comfort item and when children do not need to access an abundance of this comfort item, they, therefore, have a lower risk of overeating and becoming obese. The study also showed that this was true even when children were facing challenges already linked with a higher risk of obesity. Things like poverty, maternal depression, or living in a single-parent home did not seem to affect children as much as long as they had a loving and positive relationship and home life.
Sources: Medical Xpress, AAP