Associations Between Parental BMI and the Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Environment in a Community Sample

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parental BMI and the family environment and determine if differences exist in child diet and physical activity related parenting behaviors by parental BMI in a community sample of families recruited through elementary schools in a local school district. We found an association between parental BMI category and family nutrition and physical activity (FNPA) score. Families with an underweight or normal weight parent had a larger proportion (64.3%) of high (indicating a healthier family environment) FNPA scores and families with an overweight or obese parent had a smaller proportion (45.2%) of high FNPA scores (χ = 5.247, P = 0.022). Families with a parent who was overweight or obese had 2.18 times the odds (95% CI 1.11-4.27) of being in the low FNPA ("less healthy" environment) group. Further, underweight/normal weight parents reported higher levels of monitoring of child diet (Z = -3.652, P< 0.0001), higher levels of parental monitoring of child physical activity (Z = -3.471, p < 0.001), and higher levels of parental limit setting related to child sedentary activities compared to overweight/obese parents (Z = -2.443, P = 0.01). Parent BMI and parenting behaviors are known to have a major impact on childhood obesity. In this study, lower parent BMI and authoritative parenting behaviors were associated with a less obesogenic home environment and a positive parenting style related to child eating and physical activity behaviors.

Food Parenting Practices Among Parents with Overweight and Obesity: A Systematic Review

“…Similarly Haycraft and colleagues [73] found significantly higher reports of mothers with overweight/obesity giving their child more control around eating, as assessed by the CFPQ, in comparison to mothers with healthy-weight. In contrast, two cross-sectional studies reported no significant differences between parents with healthy-weight, overweight and obesity and CFQ control [75] and PSEAS control [87].…”

“…Costa and colleagues [72] suggested that rather than parental weight, parental concern about their child's weight, i.e., where the child is at risk of developing overweight or is already overweight, is related to parental monitoring of their child's eating which questions the direction of this relationship. In contrast, another study using the PSEAS, reported that underweight and healthy-weight parents monitor their child's diet significantly more than parents with overweight and obesity [87], suggesting that parents with overweight and obesity monitor their child's diet less.…”

“…The questionnaires used in studies varied, however the Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) and CFQ subscales appeared to be used most frequently [68,[70][71][72]74,75,79,80,83]. Other measures used to collect FPP data included the Pre-Schooler Feeding Questionnaire (PFQ) [67], the Chatoor Feeding Scale (CFS) [84], the Parental Feeding Style Questionnaire (PFSQ) [65,77], , the Toddler Snack Food Feeding Questionnaire (TSFFQ) [71], the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ) [35,69,85], the Caregiver's Feeding Styles Questionnaire (CFSQ) [86], the Feeding Strategies Questionnaire (FSQ) [69], the Parenting Strategies for Eating and Activity Scale (PSEAS) [87], and the Meals in our Household (MioH) [69] measure.…”

“…One study examined the use of discipline among parents with their children via the PSEAS, which asks parents whether they discipline their child for unhealthy eating [87]. There were no significant differences between healthy-weight, overweight and obese parents and use of discipline for eating unhealthy foods [87].…”

Prevalence of obesity and overweight among primary school children in a district of Istanbul, Turkey

“…On the other hand, there was a significant correlation between fathers' and mothers' BMI (Spearman, r = 0.15, p = 0.043). This finding suggested that either dietary characteristics of the parents were important in childhood obesity, or that they all shared a similar obesogenic environment [27]. However, an additional limitation of this study was a lack of detailed information about family eating attitudes, cooking patterns, and food content.…”