Parental Involvement in Childhood Obesity and Control

Within families, there’s often a monkey-see-monkey-do dynamic when it comes to many behaviors—and eating and exercise habits are no exceptions. The reality is, kids tend to emulate their parents’ eating and exercise habits. This means if parents consume an unhealthy diet, the kids have a good chance of following in their footsteps. Fortunately, the flip side is true as well—if parents consume healthy meals and snacks, their kids are likely to follow suit. In other words, parents have the power to shape their children’s eating and exercise habits in ways that can prevent them from becoming overweight or improve their weight status if they’re already overweight.

These influences start early. In a recent study, researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine found that parents’ nutrition and physical activity patterns significantly influence their preschoolers’ consumption of fruits and vegetables, junk food, and their amount of physical activity or sedentary behavior. These patterns can add up and have a cumulative effect on a child’s weight. Here’s a look at the different ways these influences play out:

Parenting Style

It’s not just what family members eat and how much they move that influence a child’s weight gain pattern. Parenting style also plays a role. Research indicates, for example, that when parents exert excessive control over what, when, and how much their children eat, the kids may be at higher risk of becoming overweight. After reviewing the medical literature on parents’ child-feeding behaviors and their children’s weight, researchers in the U.K. concluded that “parents may inadvertently promote excess weight gain in childhood by using inappropriate child-feeding” tactics such as restricting children’s eating or pressuring them to eat.

For one thing, research suggests that when overweight parents who have trouble controlling their own food intake adopt controlling ways of feeding their child, the approach often backfires: Rather than reducing their son’s or daughter’s risk of becoming overweight, this controlling feeding style may promote problematic eating habits in the child, ones that can interact with a genetic predisposition to obesity, leading to weight gain. The influence is especially powerful with mothers. Research from the Obesity Prevention Program at Harvard Medical School found that kids whose mothers engaged in restrictive feeding when they were one year old were more likely to have a higher body mass index (BMI) at age three than those whose mothers didn’t have restrictive feeding styles.

Feeding Practices

When parents prepare healthy family meals—consisting of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts and seeds, beans and legumes, low-fat dairy products and lean protein —and refuse to resort to being a short-order cook who caters to pint-size palates, kids end up benefiting. This way, everyone in the family consumes a balanced, healthy diet and kids learn to appreciate, if not actually prefer, healthier foods. In a review of 60 studies on the subject, researchers in the U.K. found that adolescents whose parents consume plenty of fruits and vegetables tend to consume more fruits and vegetables, too.

Another good strategy: Involve kids in food preparation. A recent study from Switzerland found that when children were involved in preparing a meal (chicken, pasta, salad, and cauliflower) with a parent, they ate 76 percent more salad and 24 percent more chicken than when the same meal was prepared solo by the parent. If you have the option of growing produce at home, this can have a positive effect on kids’ eating habits, too. A study involving 1,658 parents and their preschool-age children in Missouri found that preschoolers in households with more homegrown produce tended to have a greater preference for fruits and vegetables than their peers who didn’t have an abundance of homegrown produce.

Exercise Habits

It stands to reason that if parents are physically active, their kids will be, too—and research suggests this is true. In a study involving 1,124 12-year-old children and their parents, researchers in Sweden found that girls and boys who had two physically active parents were four times and nine times more likely, respectively, to be engaged in vigorous physical activity or sports than kids whose parents were inactive.

There’s a direct effect (due to parents’ modeling of physical activity) and an indirect effect (in the form of encouragement, support, and involvement). Moms and Dads may have different influences in these respects: In a study involving 1,278 children ages 10 to 11, researchers in Finland found that fathers’ modeling of physical activity had a direct effect on their kids’ physical activity, whereas mothers’ modeling and parental encouragement had more of an indirect effect—by boosting kids’ perceived competence and interest in being physically active.    

Putting the Pieces Together

Given the choice between modeling healthy eating and exercise habits and trying to control your child’s behavior, it’s better to opt for the former approach. In particular, a positive parental role model is more effective at improving a child’s diet and instilling higher levels of body satisfaction, according to research from the U.K. A positive parental role model can also inspire kids to get moving (and stay moving!). 

The best ways to achieve this is with an appropriate division of responsibility: Parents should choose what the family eats by serving healthy foods at every meal and snack, and children should be allowed to decide how much to eat at each occasion. Parents should exercise regularly and provide plenty of opportunities and encouragement for their kids to be physically active, then let kids discover their own love of movement. This approach gently sets the stage for better weight management and helps kids develop healthy eating and exercise habits for life.  

By David L. Katz, MD

Childhood Obesity Expert

The 4 Biggest Discipline Mistakes Parents Make Learn how to avoid these parenting blunders

Parenting is a tough job. There's no doubt about that. And learning how to discipline your child in a way that will be most effective in teaching him everything he needs to know before he turns 18, can seem like an impossible task. Here are some of the biggest discipline mistakes many parents make and learn what you can do about them.

1. Not Giving the Right Kind of Attention

When kids don’t get enough positive attention, behavioral problems often result. Positive attention reduces attention seeking behaviors such as whining, temper tantrums, and other purposely annoying behaviors. When kids don’t get attention for positive behaviors, such as playing quietly, sitting at the dinner table, and taking turns, they’ll often act out just to get any kind of attention.

Sometimes parents inadvertently encourage misbehavior by giving kids negative attention. Any type of attention, including negative attention, gives children positive reinforcement. Avoid power struggles because the more you argue or pay attention to a behavior, the worse it will get. It’s okay to ignore mild misbehavior

2. Only Looking at the Short-Term
Another big parenting mistake can be only focusing on the short-term. Good discipline techniques should also focus on the long-term. It is important to remember that your child will need certain skills in order to become a healthy, responsible adult. Therefore, the most effective discipline strategies focus on teaching kids these skills.



Although giving in may make things easier today, it will make behavior problems worse in the long-term. For example, some parents give in to kids when their kids are whining in an attempt to get the child to stop. However, giving in teaches children that whining and complaining are good ways to get their needs met.

Unfortunately, this can be detrimental to a child. A child who learns that whining gets him what he wants, is likely to struggle with peer relationships or authority figures.

Children need to learn that there are negative consequences for their behaviors. When parents stick to limits and provide fair, consistent, authoritative discipline strategies, children will learn the skills they need.

3. Not Creating Written Rules
When there are not clear rules, it can be quite confusing to kids to know what is expected from them. Sometimes the problem is that each parent has a different rule or interpretation of the rule. This leads to children viewing one parent as the “good guy” and the other parent as the “bad guy.”

Other times, the problem is that a parent is not consistent. Stress from other responsibilities such as work, can make a parent feel too exhausted to follow through with limits and consequences. An overworked single mother may feel too tired to make her child do his homework some nights. This can be confusing to him and may cause him to argue more on the nights she tries to get him to complete his homework, causing her to feel it just isn’t worth the trouble.

Establishing a written list of household rules helps children have more structure. When kids are clear what the limits and consequences are, they can make more informed decisions. It is important that kids also have assigned chores and clear rules about money to teach them responsibility.

4. Not Having a Discipline Plan
When it comes to managing behavioral issues it is better to be proactive rather than reactive. Take some time to develop a comprehensive behavior plan to help manage behavioral issues. When parents attack problems with a clear plan, it is much easier to track the child’s progress and make changes when necessary.

Without a clear plan, parents sometimes struggle to deal with behaviors and the result is chaos. For example if a child begins hitting others, a parent may not know how to deal with the child’s aggression. As a result, the parent may sometimes use time out but at other times may spank the child out of exasperation. This inconsistency may be confusing to the child and may not stop the behavior.

Parents need to develop a behavior management plan whenever behavioral issues arise with their children. This can increase consistency and ensure that kids are receiving clear messages about their behaviors. It can also help parents work together with other caregivers to make sure that all the adults are responding in a similar manner.

By Amy Morin