While there are many causes of childhood obesity that are outside parent’s control, this behaviour is one area they can address.
Positive parenting can help reduce childhood obesity.
Positive parenting involves responding to children in positive ways and encouraging them to explore the world.
Parenting in this way is about empathy, warmth and support.
While there are many causes of childhood obesity that are outside parent’s control, positive parenting is one area they can address.
Dr Brandi Rollins, the study’s first author, said:
“A lot of the discussion around childhood obesity and other health risks focuses on identifying and studying the exposure to risk.
We took a strength-based approach in our analysis.
We found that a supportive family and environment early in a child’s life may outweigh some of the cumulative risk factors that children can face.”
Their study included over 1,000 mother-and-child pairs.
The results showed that emotional warmth, a quality home environment and self-regulation abilities of the child were all linked to a lower risk of obesity.
Dr Rollins said:
“Research on parenting has shown that these types of family assets influence children’s behaviour, academic success, career, and — not surprisingly — health.
It is significant that these factors also protect against childhood obesity because the family assets we studied are not food or diet-specific at all.
It is heartening to know that, by providing a loving, safe environment, we can reduce the risk that children will develop obesity.”
Unfortunately, the results also showed that for severely obese children who were overweight from a very young age, positive parenting had little effect.
Dr Rollins said:
“Though the findings on severe obesity may seem discouraging, they offer some hope.
Some risk factors, like household poverty, can be very difficult to change.
Assets, on the other hand, may be easier to build.
People can learn to parent responsively.
It is encouraging that parenting really matters, that family matters.”
Learning positive parenting
One of the keys to positive parenting is being responsive: attending to the child’s needs in a sensitive and timely manner.
Positive parenting involves reassuring and encouraging children as well as giving affection.
Common positive parenting skills include praising good behaviour and using gentle reminders of proper behaviour.
Children who are better able to inhibit their own behaviour respond even more favourably to positive parenting.
These kinds of skills take practice, said Dr Rollins:
“No one can read a pamphlet about cars and suddenly expect to drive.
Driving is a skill that requires education and practice.
The same is true of responsive parenting.
The study was published in the journal Pediatrics (Rollins et al., 2022).
