Question 1
In the supplemental
article researchers found that having an obese/overweight father, with a healthy
weight mother, increased the odds of childhood obesity compared to the reverse,
having an obese/overweight mother and healthy weight father. Does this surprise
you? What are some of your hypotheses for the increase in odds?
posted by Unknown @ 7:21 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
This finding is certainly shocking to me. I grew up in a household where my father was of normal weight and my mother was obese - yet my dietary choices and lifestyle had my following the path of my mother of being overweight and ultimately obese. I would have assumed the opposite was true based on my experience alone.
When considering the role that fathers play in the family, they are typically the parent that displays stronger authority and serves as a disciplinarian. I know that my dad was the parent that enforced that we "had to finish our milk" before leaving the dinner table. This certainly could be a factor that fathers play - when encouraging children to clean their plates or eat full/large portions after the father has modeled them himself. The authority that a father typically has in a family may make him a stronger influence in feeding practices over mothers.
Having worked with Dr. Vollmer as her research assistant, the results do not surprise me since I have been exposed to these results time and time again. However, I remember one of our first conversations about the studies that she came across from Australia and it had surprised me at the time. I hadn't really considered the role the individual parent might play. One of the factors that I think may have increased the odds is the differences in parenting styles. This past semester, Dr. Vollmer had me write a literature review on parent child feeding practices. One of the studies that I recall was by Goulding et al., and it showed that moms with more depressive symptoms exhibited more pressuring to eat of their children, which could, in turn, result in a higher rate of obesity and overweight later. I would be curious to see if similar results would occur in a father with depressive symptoms. A parent's age, race, and education level, in addition to their personal feeding practices, also influence a child's weight status. This also makes me wonder if there are significant differences between broken homes where families do not have a father present.
This definitely surprises me considering traditionally, mothers prepare the meals and is expected to take care of the children. I supposed that perhaps in a traditional household setting, the father is supposed to be the "head of the household". The children are supposed to listen to the father more, he has the final say, and perhaps the food served at home is tailored to the father's tastes. Therefore, if the food is tailored to the dad's taste and preferences, then dad's diet would greatly influence a child's dietary habits and quality.
In my household, the food, especially dinners, are mostly made to fit my dad's tastes. The rest of the family could be wanting pizza, but we would not eat it because we all know that my dad is not satisfied with eating pizza. So based on my personal experience, I feel that although it is common for moms to cook in the home, the family could be eating more of what dad wants and following his diet quality and habits because he is traditionally the head of the household we have to listen to.
I am surprised by these results. Like Vivian said, the mother traditionally prepares the meals, so you would think the mom would have the highest influence on the child’s diet. I do think that Vivian and Jenn have a point with the role of the father being the head of the household and having a strong influence of the meals. For my family, my mom cooks differently if my dad is not home. My mom and I made quinoa stuffed peppers but that is not something my dad would even think of trying so we made them when my dad was not going to be home for supper.
Amanda made some interesting points about some of the research that she was analyzing. There are so many factors I think it is impossible to pin it on one reason. I would imagine the family dynamic would be a factor too. It is great to see dad’s in the spotlight because we often times solely focus on the mothers. I don’t think families realize how much children learn from watching and observing their parents actions.
I am also very surprised with these results. I initially expected it to be opposite, as Vivian said, since the mother's role is traditionally to do the shopping and food preparation, you would expect the family to reflect her diet habits more than the father's. I also can see where what Jenn said about the father having the dominant role in the family and enforcing rules that he believed to be important (ie. finishing your milk/food).
I think another theory could be that the fathers traditionally are the main advocates for activity, whether that be yard work, playing catch after dinner, or encouraging sporting events. If the father is obese himself, he would more than likely not be up to do a lot of yard work or activities, therefore the kids would follow his lead and also be more sedentary.
I can truly relate to Vivian's point about mother's preparing certain foods at meal times based on the father's tastes and preferences. This certainly has an intimate foundation in wives choosing to cook based on what their husbands enjoy, and I have certainly observed this dynamic in many families. This is certainly not the case in every family, however, since some families make multiple options to meet each individual's preferences or the father may be the primary cook in the household. In my family, the only green vegetable that my dad will eat is lettuce. This certainly affected what was served during meal times in my family - we frequently had corn or pork n' beans as our "veggie" side. Since parents serve as models during meals, if children observe their parents avoiding certain foods they are likely to avoid them themselves.
Great discussion everyone! I was too surprised by the results and I am glad you guys are sharing personal experiences in your families. As many have said their mom normally prepares the food and is the care taker making her the assumed factor of diet quality. Jenn proposed a great hypothesis of the dad being the authority figure and enforcing rules regarding how much to eat. Father's are often seen as the head of the household possibly explaining the reason they influence diet quality in their children. Steph also tied in the physical activity aspect to her hypothesis that was also researched in this study.
I thought Vivian and Abby brought up good points about how meals are often accommodated to meet the father's tastes. Just like Abby and her mom might cook differently when her dad is not home for supper, my mom and I do the same thing. Whereas my dad probably wouldn't agree with having a big salad as a meal, my mom and I used to do it all the time when he would be out of the house for men's golf league or city council meetings. I also agreed with Steph's point about the fathers traditionally being the advocates for activity. I think it is the difference in the mother/father roles that may have caused the results of the research.
I was initially surprised by the results of the study as well. In my mind I definitely thought of the mothers as having a greater influence over their child's diet, especially in a more traditional setting. In my family, my mother was always the one that asked us if we wanted more and I became a member of the "clean plate club". I was definitely what I would call a "chunky" kid growing up though.
While the results of the study are somewhat surprising to me, it does make sense how the fathers may exhibit more influence over the children with being more the head of the household. As Jenn mentioned before, the father can serve as more the disciplinarian and authority role model figure for the family and perhaps children see this as a greater influence. There is certainly some fluidity in this particular gender role though. I think that it might be interesting to see how much time each parent spends with the child, especially at meal times, as well as current working status.
I think that Stephanie brought up a great point as well about fathers being involved with the child's physical activity through things such as yard work and play. It was certainly the case in my family where my dad was extremely active working outside and I was right there alongside him most of the time.
At first gut instinct I think Mom because mom is in charge of the groceries and meal prep typically. But it may make some sense when thinking about the father figure for play and a role model. I don’t know if it was any different for other families, but I remember dad being almost put on a pedestal of respect. I always got the line, “well, we’ll have to check with Dad when he gets home,” and if I was bad, “Wait until you father gets home.” Dad was the gatekeeper for the goods and the enforcer of the rules. I feel like my dad set the tone because he was the “most in-charge” party.
Mom was always available to us, so time with Dad time had a special allure because he wasn’t always around due to work. It’s natural to not really appreciate the things we always have access to; “limited time only” offers peak our interests. Enjoyment for my dad revolved around activities outdoors and physical play, rather than food. I remember my dad almost teaching us what play was. Play time with dad, for us, was after dinner typically too. So there was a focus on being able to get up from the table sooner rather than sitting and eating. I don’t mean to bring in theories, but I wonder if this relationship of BMI will change as the flexibility in gender roles becomes more accepted. Maybe an additional question for who enforces the rules and makes major decisions to figure out who “wears the pants,” (gender stereotype right there) would be helpful.
Amanda did bring up a really good point about single parent families. Might grandma, grandpa, aunt, etc. exhibit the BMI relationship? I really think we need to figure out what it is about the father relationship that gives it that power. Dual income households could also affect the relationship. So many questions now that the issue has been brought to our attention.
My mom did cater somewhat to my dad's likes and dislikes, but only in that if it was something he didn't like she would have an alternative available. I remember lots of foods that my sister and I loved that my dad wouldn't touch. I was a pretty independent eater though. One thing that throws a monkey wrench in the whole theory is the protein factor though. Dads and kids didn't match up on the meat part of the diet with kids being insufficient/much lower. The dietary relationship is not a perfect, but it doesn't have to be to still exert influence.
I definitely agree with Viv, Abby, Steph, and everyone else who mentioned that these results are surprising based on the mother's traditionally dominant role in meal preparation. Like John, these results were surprising to me initially. After giving the results of the study a bit more consideration I too can see how a father's weight status would perhaps have more of an influence on the child's weight status.
I regularly watch T.V. shows like Biggest Loser and Extreme Weight Loss and one thing that you can almost always guarantee you are going to see during an episode featuring a mother is that she has let herself go because she focuses on taking care of her family and not herself. And many times in these episodes the rest of the family will be of a normal (or lesser than the mom) BMI status. Maybe this sort of family dynamic could account for the less significant correlation between a mother having an overweight/obese status and the child not having an overweight or obese status.
The results were surprising to me, but I also thought about why these results may be justified. For example, in traditional American homes the father is usually the head of the house and therefore although the mother might typically cook the family meals the father might influence what is served for these meals based on his preferences. If the father is the head of the household the child might also look up to his or her father more and therefore can have a large effect on the child's diet.
I agree with Jenn that I too thought the mother would have more influence on the diet, but I wonder if that is because we are girls and we may relate more to our mothers based on gender? I would be curious to see if gender played a role in our weight. For example, if you are a girl would you be more likely to take on your mother's eating habits and if you were a boy would you be more influenced by your dad's eating habits?
I also think Steph brought up an interesting idea about physical activity. I think if the study did look into physical activity levels of both parents they may have found an answer of why the results turned out the way they did.
Post a Comment
<< Home