Background: Obese parents are more likely to have obese children. Parents provide both the genes and eating environment for their children and familial patterns of adiposity are the result of gene-environment interactions. Environmental factors are implicated in the rapid increases in prevalence of childhood overweight that have occurred in the past 2 decades. Examination of aspects of the family environment may provide insight into increases in childhood overweight over time.
Objective: We examined parental characteristics associated with overweight and eating behaviors in preschool children.
Design: Seventy-five preschool children and their parents were recruited from local daycare centers. Information was obtained on parents' body mass indexes (BMIs), dietary restraint, and dietary disinhibition. A behavioral index of disinhibited eating in children was used to measure children's eating when given free access to palatable snack foods in the absence of hunger. Children's weight-for-height values were also calculated.
Results: Maternal dietary disinhibition (R2 = 0.35, P < 0.01) and maternal BMI (R2 = 0.19, P < 0.05) positively predicted daughters' overweight. Maternal disinhibition (R2 = 0.35, P < 0.05) mediated the relation between mothers' BMI and daughters' overweight when both maternal disinhibition and maternal BMI were used to predict daughters' overweight. Furthermore, when both mothers' disinhibition and daughters' free access intakes were used to predict daughters' overweight, mothers' disinhibition (P < 0.05) showed independent prediction.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that familial influences on child overweight differ according to parent and child sex. Also, these results suggest that mothers' dietary disinhibition mediates familial similarities in degree of overweight for mothers and daughters.