Disciplinarian parents have fat kids-U.S. study

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Parents who are strict disciplinarians
are far more likely to wind up with children who are fat by age
six, perhaps because the youngsters over-eat as a reaction to
stress, a study said on Monday.

The report from Boston University School of Medicine also
found that the fewest weight problems occur among children
whose parents are “authoritative” — having high expectations
for self control but respectful of a child’s opinions and who
set clear boundaries.

The study also found that children of parents who are
permissive, defined as indulgent and without discipline, also
have weight problems but not to the degree of the offspring of
strict disciplinarians with low levels of sensitivity, the
study said.

Researchers also found that children of neglectful mothers
and fathers, those who are emotionally uninvolved with no set
rules, fared about the same as kids raised by permissive
parents.

The study covered 872 children who were part of a group
enrolled at birth in 1991 in a U.S. government study and
followed for a number of years.

“Among the four parenting styles, authoritarian parenting
was associated with the highest risk of overweight among young
children,” concluded the study published in the June issue of
“Pediatrics,” the journal of the American Academy of
Pediatrics.

“These results provide evidence that a strict environment
lacking in emotional responsiveness is associated with an
increased risk of childhood overweight,” the study said.

It may be that strict parents have defined limits on when
and what their children eat that could have a negative impact
if not accompanied by warmth and sensitivity, it added.

“A parent who is relatively insensitive to the child’s
emotional needs and development may impose a structure, such as
requiring that a child clean his or her plate, that results in
learning to eat on the basis of external cues rather than
internal cues,” the report said.

In addition, if a parent demands that a child exercise, it
may result in an aversion to exercise, it said.

And living in a home with high expectations for self
control but little sensitivity can be stressful, it added, and
overeating can become “a stress response.”