Strict Parenting is linked to overweight kids

A recent study in US discovered that parents who are strict disciplinarians are far more likely to wind up with children who are fat by age six, perhaps because the youngsters over-eat as a reaction to stress.

Researchers divided the parenting style in four categories.

1. The novel study from Boston University School of Medicine revealed that "Clean your plate or else!" and other authoritarian approaches to parenting can lead to overweight children.

2. The US study also discovered that the fewest weight problems develop among children whose parents are "authoritative" or also called flexible parenting style -- having high expectations for self control but respectful of a child's opinions and who set clear boundaries.

3. The study unveiled that children of parents, who are permissive or not strict in discipline, and can be defined as indulgent and without discipline, also have weight problems but not to the degree of the offspring of strict disciplinarians with low levels of sensitivity.

4. Researchers also determined that children of neglectful mothers and fathers, those who are emotionally uninvolved with no set rules, fared about the same as kids rose by permissive parents.

"The difference between the different parenting groups is pretty striking," said the study co-author, Dr. Kay Rhee of Boston University School of Medicine.

After observing all the parenting styles, the study arrived at the decision that “Among the four parenting styles, authoritarian parenting was associated with the highest risk of overweight among young children."

Strict mothers were about five times more likely to raise roly-poly first-graders than mothers who treated their children with flexibility and respect while also setting clear rules. But while the children of flexible rule-setting moms avoided obesity, the children of neglectful mothers and without discipline mothers were twice as likely to get fat.

"These results provide evidence that a strict environment lacking in emotional responsiveness is associated with an increased risk of childhood overweight," the study quoted. It may be that strict parents have defined limits on when and what their children eat that could have a negative impact if not accompanied by warmth and sensitivity, the study further added.
The study, which published in the June issue of "Pediatrics," the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, involved 872 children who were part of a group enrolled at birth in 1991 in a U.S. government study and followed for a number of years.