Low parental support in late adolescence predicts obesity in young adulthood; Gender differences in a 12-year cohort of African Americans.

Shervin Assari,Cleopatra Howard Caldwell,Marc A Zimmerman

doi:10.1186/s40200-015-0176-8

Shervin Assari, Cleopatra Howard Caldwell + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40200-015-0176-8

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Abstract

BackgroundMost studies that have investigated the link between parenting behaviors and risk of obesity among offsprings have mostly used a cross-sectional design, enrolled Caucasian samples, focused on childhood obesity, and covered aspects of parenting behaviors that directly influence energy balance and food intake of the children. Thus, more longitudinal research is needed on how more general aspects of parenting influence obesity in young ethnic minority adults. The current longitudinal study aimed to test if baseline parental support predicts change in body mass index (BMI) of African Americans, and if this prediction varies based on gender of offspring.MethodsThe current study followed 227 young African American adults (109 male and 118 female) for 12 years from year 2000 (mean age 20) to year 2012 (mean age 32). All participants were enrolled from a disadvantaged urban area in the Midwest of the United States. Baseline demographics (age, gender), socio-economics (family structure, and parental employment), psychological symptoms (anxiety and depression), general parental support (maternal support, and paternal support) were measured. BMI was measured at baseline and at follow up. We used gender-specific linear regressions to test the predictive role of baseline paternal and maternal support (year 2000) on change in BMI (from 2000 to 2012).ResultsRegression analysis showed that among female African American young adults, high baseline maternal support was predictive of a lower increase in BMI from 2000 to 2012. The association remained significant while all covariates were in the model. We could not find such an association for male African American young adults.ConclusionHigh maternal support appears to be protective against increases in BMI among African American female young adults. As parental support is a modifiable factor within available evidence-based interventions that enhance parenting, it should be included in obesity prevention programs for African American women. Policies and programs should support African American mothers in disadvantaged neighborhoods to enable them to provide high levels of parental support for their young adult daughters. Future research should test the efficacy of such programs and policies for reducing obesity among African American women.

Highlights

Most studies that have investigated the link between parenting behaviors and risk of obesity among offsprings have mostly used a cross-sectional design, enrolled Caucasian samples, focused on childhood obesity, and covered aspects of parenting behaviors that directly influence energy balance and food intake of the children
We argue that high quality parenting may have a general protective effect, above and beyond parenting behaviors that directly shape life style and energy balance of the child
We argue that parental support may be one of the ingredients by which high quality parenting may protect the child against obesity

Summary

Introduction

Most studies that have investigated the link between parenting behaviors and risk of obesity among offsprings have mostly used a cross-sectional design, enrolled Caucasian samples, focused on childhood obesity, and covered aspects of parenting behaviors that directly influence energy balance and food intake of the children. Some particular behavior of parents are components of the obesogenic environment for the child [6], it is not clear if more general aspects of parenting influence risk of obesity of the offspring. Most studies on the link between parents’ behaviors and offspring obesity have focused on specific parenting behaviors that directly impact energy balance (i.e. food consumption, physical activity, and sedentary behavior) [1,2,3,4,5, 7,8,9,10,11,12] It is not clear if the effects of parents’ behaviors on offspring obesity are exclusively limited to the particular parenting behaviors that influence feeding, exercise, nutrition, and sedentary life style [13, 14]. We argue that high quality parenting may have a general protective effect, above and beyond parenting behaviors that directly shape life style and energy balance of the child

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Conclusion