Parenting Blog

With the rate of childhood obesity rising alarmingly in the United States, researchers are working hard to discover the root causes of this danger to our kids’ health. Recently, Dr. Kyung Rhee and a team of scientists at Boston University discovered a surprising link between parenting styles and obesity in children. The research showed that kids who are raised by very strict parents are five times more likely to be obese than kids who are raised by more democratic parents. Parenting styles were evaluated based on the level of discipline, how much say the child has in the discipline, and how involved the parents are in the child’s life. The strictest parents have high levels of discipline and involvement, and their children are not allowed to question them. The neglectful parent would be someone who has no discipline or involvement in their child’s life, while other parents still care for their children but enforce no form of discipline. In these families children also have a higher rate of obesity, though not as high as those in the strict families. The children who were at the lowest risk for obesity were those raised by more “democratic” parents. In essence, these parents enforce their own rules but still listen to and consider their child’s point of view.

The team has not discovered a reason for this pattern, but they predict that children with strict parents do not learn how to properly control their eating habits because they are not used to making decisions for themselves, whereas children with democratic parents learn how to make healthy choices. Also, a strict parent might tell their child to finish all of their dinner without listening to the child’s complaints that he or she is full. Thus, kids learn to ignore their bodies’ signals and they develop overeating habits. Studies conducted in the past have proven that children from democratic families have consistently better grades, take fewer risks as they get older, and are more likely to be happier and psychologically stable. These results probably occur for the same reason: a child who is told what to do will not learn how to think for himself. Children who are obese are more likely to have weight problems and related health issues throughout their lives. While many other factors contribute to the increase in childhood obesity, such as a hectic lifestyle and even lower income levels (healthier foods are also more expensive), hopefully this discovery will encourage parents to be more democratic and help to turn those rising numbers around.