Parenting style and obesity risk in children
Section snippets
Background
Obesity prevalence in Canadian youth has doubled since 1980 (Tremblay and Willms, 2000). In addition to biologic factors, sociodemographic and environmental factors are associated with obesity; lower socioeconomic status (SES) (Wang and Beydoun, 2007), living in neighborhoods with poor walkability, and poor access to fresh fruits and vegetables increase the risk for obesity (Powell et al., 2006, Nilsen et al., 2010).
In children, environmental factors specific to family life may play an
Methods
A cross-sectional sample of participants from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) database comprised the study population. The study's sampling design and study protocol have been published previously (Statistics Canada and Human Resources Development Canada, 1995). Briefly, samples representative of the non-institutionalized civilian youth (ages 0–11) throughout Canada was collected bi-annually since 1994. The cross-sectional samples of interest for this study (n =
Results
The analytic sample (n = 37,577) did not significantly differ from those excluded due to missing data (n = 5860) in sex or age of the child, but was less likely to be from an immigrant family or poor, and the PMK was more likely to have at least a high-school education (data not shown). The implications of this are described in the discussion. Most of the missing data occurred with the covariates; the proportion missing parenting style was < 5%. A sensitivity analysis wherein multivariable models
Discussion
In this large sample of Canadian youth, authoritarian parenting was consistently associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity when compared to authoritative parenting. However, further analysis revealed that poverty moderated this association in younger children. Among younger children not living in poverty, an authoritarian or negligent parenting style was associated with an increased likelihood of obesity compared to an authoritative parenting style. Parenting style was not
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgments
LK was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Fonds de recherche du Québec -Santé. TAB is a Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec Junior 2 Scholar. Data were collected by Statistics Canada. These agencies were not involved in the study design, data analyses, data interpretation or manuscript writing and submission processes. LK had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
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