Parenting styles and practices in children's obesogenic behaviors: scientific gaps and future research directions

Abstract

Given the emerging global childhood obesity epidemic and the specter of a generation of children who will have a shorter life expectancy than that of their parents, recent research has focused on factors that influence children's weight status and obesogenic behaviors (i.e., eating, physical activity, and screen media use). Parents act as primary socializing agents for children, and thus growing evidence supports the role of parenting styles and practices in children's obesity-related behaviors and weight. Studying these processes in children and adolescents is important for several reasons. First, diet and physical activity behaviors and weight status track from childhood and adolescence into adulthood. Furthermore, diet and physical activity behaviors and weight status confer significant risk for cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic diseases. The purpose of this article is to describe the scientific gaps that need to be addressed to develop a more informed literature on parenting styles and practices in the domains of weight status and obesogenic behaviors, as identified by an expert panel assembled by the National Cancer Institute.

Figure 1.

A hierarchical model of parenting styles, parenting practices, and children's obesogenic behaviors.

Figure 2.

Causal loop diagram of the parent–child restrictive feeding relationship. Note that this is a simplified model for illustrative purposes only; other important feedback loops and variables may, of course, exist. S, the second variable changes in the same direction as the first (can also be noted as a “+” sign), all else equal; O, the second variable changes in the opposite direction as the first (can also be noted as a “−” sign), all else equal; R1, reinforcing loop 1.