PARENTING STYLE AS A PREDICTOR OF ADOLESCENT WEIGHT AND WEIGHTRELATED BEHAVIORS

Jerica M. Berge, Ph.D., Melanie Wall, Ph.D., Katie Loth, M.P.H. and Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Ph.D., M.P.H.

WHY DID I CHOSE THE TOPIC?

Adolescent obesity rate Health risks related to weight and weight-related behaviors Parenting style Guide for evidenced based nursing care Personal experience

TWO TYPOLOGIES OF PARENTING STYLE

Responsiveness- extent to which a parent fosters individuality, self regulation, and self assertion in their child by being attuned and supportive of their child needs.

Demandingness- extent to which parents cultivate self-control and responsibility in their child through parental supervision, rules or structure and disciplinary efforts.

TYPES OF PARENTING STYLE

Authoritative- high D and high R Authoritarian- high D and low R Permissive- high R and low D Neglectful- low R and low D

Authoritative vs. Neglectful

AUTHORITATIVE PARENTING STYLE

Low youth BMI More frequent physical activity Healthy dietary intake

Authoritarian- increase odds of being overweight

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Does parenting style predict adolescent BMI longitudinally? Which specific parenting styles serve as risk factors in relation to adolescent obesity? Does parenting style predict other weight-related outcomes for adolescent including, health dietary intake and physical activity?

METHOD
Data from Project EAT, a population-based study with adolescents from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, were used. Adolescents (N 2,516) from 31 Minnesota schools completed in-class assessments in 1999 (Time 1) and mailed surveys in 2004 (Time 2). Multiple linear regression models were used to predict mean levels of adolescent outcomes at Time 2 from parenting style at Time 1.

MEASURES
Responsiveness- care and communication Demandingness- questions like how strict would you say your mother/father is?

VARIABLES
Adolescent BMI Dietary Intake Physical activity

Sex, age, ethnicity/race Socioeconomic status

RESULTS
Time 1 maternal authoritative parenting style predicted lower body mass index in adolescentsons and daughters at Time 2. Time 1 paternal permissive parenting style predicted more fruits and vegetables intake in daughters at Time 2. Significant associations were not found between parenting style and adolescent physical activity.

Meternal authoritarian higher BMI in sons Paternal neglectful- less frequent physical activity Permissive paternal and Authoritative paternal no difference in daughters and fruit and vegetables intake

DISCUSSION
Mothers who had high expectations and/or structure and high caring and/or emotional responsiveness in the home created environments that promoted lower BMI. Father who had high emotional responsiveness/caring and less structure in home created environments daughters ate more fruits and vegetables

CONCLUSION
Findings suggest that authoritative parenting style may play a protective role related to adolescent overweight and that the dimension of warmth and/or caring in the parentadolescent relationship may be important in relation to female adolescent healthy dietary intake. Further exploration of opposite sex parent adolescent dyad patterns related to parenting style and adolescent weight and weight-related behaviors is warranted

NURSING ROLE

As nurses this research would be a very useful tool in delivering an evidence based care to our clients by providing health teachings to parents to avoid obesity by simply improving the parenting style which is a very easy and economical way of preventing diseases of their children in the future.