Perceived Temperament and Risk for the Development of Overweight in Children

Abstract

Evidence reviewed in this paper suggests that there is an increased risk for rapid weight gain and overweight in children who are perceived by their caregivers as having difficult temperamental characteristics. Recent findings indicate that parental perceptions of difficult temperament mediate the effect of the most potent risk factor, parental weight, in the development of childhood overweight. Further prospective trials that make tightly focused, a priori predictions regarding well defined temperamental characteristics and their potential relationship to a single well defined outcome measure would strengthen the validity of these findings. Parental behaviors associated with feeding differ between children who are perceived as having difficult temperaments versus those who are perceived as having easier temperaments. Parental prompting and control over feeding appears to occur more frequently among overweight parents who perceive their children as being difficult. Such control has been associated with overweight in laboratory observations of parental feeding practices. Randomized controlled trials that attempt to modify parental feeding interactions with high risk children would be indicated to determine the worth of such interventions in addressing the obesity epidemic.

Improving Healthy Eating in Families With a Toddler at Risk for Overweight

“…Temperament style was assessed using the Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) 23 developed by Rothbart to evaluate temperament in preschool and early school-age children. For this study temperament as perceived by the parent was assessed as the mean of 4 dimensions that have been related to childhood overweight 24 (Anger/Frustration, Activity, Approach Anticipation, Impulsivity) using a 7-point range from “extremely untrue of your child” to “extremely true of your child.” The scales have good internal consistency with coefficient alphas ranging from 0.63 to 0.92, with a mean of 0.74. The scales are also relatively stable across periods as long as two years and have moderate to high levels of parental agreement.…”

“…Temperament was assessed because it has been associated with child overweight in a previous studies. 17,24 Therapist fidelity to the two treatment conditions was assessed by one of the investigators (wsa) auditing all audiotapes of the group sessions. A global score was used based on a 0–5 Likert scale from low to high fidelity.…”