Unfavourable family characteristics and their associations with childhood obesity: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective: This cross-sectional study explores the influence of multiple familial factors on children's weight status and the interaction between parenting stress and unfavourable family characteristics.

Methods: A total of 197 families with children between 6 and 14 years participated in this study. Of this group, 97 families had a child with normal weight and 100 families had a child with overweight. Parents reported on seven family factors (maternal BMI, number of children, family structure, socioeconomic position, life events, parental psychopathology and parenting stress).

Results: Families with overweight children experience more parenting stress. A regression analysis revealed that familial factors explain 27% in the variance in child's weight status. The hypothesis that a combination of familial factors will be more able to explain child's adiposity could not be confirmed.

Conclusions: Familial factors have moderate ability to predict children's weight status. There is a need to identify other familial mechanisms taking into account developmental and temporal evolutions over the past decade.