Background: The quality of parent-child relationships has been examined as a contributor to children's healthy behaviours and weight outcomes, but the mechanisms accounting for associations remain understudied.
Objective: This study examined whether the quality of early parent-child relationship is associated with adolescent obesity risk and whether self-regulation and (un)healthful food consumption mediate these associations.
Methods: Employing structural equation modelling, two theory-driven models were examined using a large sample (N = 1237) drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Indicators of the quality of parent-child relationship included assessments of child attachment security and observational assessments of maternal sensitivity (15, 24, and 36 months). Self-regulation at 54 months was assessed using behavioural and computerized tasks and, at ages 11-12 and 15 years, using parental ratings of self-control. Food consumption was self-reported at age 11-12. Height and weight measures in early/middle childhood and adolescence were used to compute BMI z-scores.
Results: No direct associations between the quality of parent-child relationship and adolescent obesity risk were found in either model. Instead, child self-regulation was found to mediate the associations between the quality of parent-child relationship and both unhealthy food consumption and higher adolescent BMI status.
Conclusion: The findings highlight how the nature of parent-child relationships impacts developing regulatory processes in children which, in turn, have implications for obesity-related behaviours and outcomes. Interventions to reduce childhood obesity should consider self-regulation skills across multiple domains, and early parenting practices that foster these capacities.
Keywords: body mass index (BMI); early parent-child relationship; food consumption; self-regulation; structural equation modelling.
© 2022 World Obesity Federation.