Kids whose parents do little to discourage bad eating habits and sedentary activities, such as television and video games, are significantly more likely to grow into overweight or obese young adults, according to new study findings.
And kids don’t appear to need to do much to stave off obesity in adulthood, for even those who replaced TV and video games with non-athletic activities such as jobs, marching bands and school clubs were less likely to carry excess weight into adulthood.
“When children are doing anything but sitting on the couch watching TV ... they’re much less likely to become obese,” study author Ashley Fenzi Crossman of Arizona State University in Tempe told Reuters Health.
Crossman presented the findings this weekend at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Philadelphia.
As part of the study, Crossman reviewed information collected from 6,400 children between the ages of 12 and 19, who were recontacted 6 years later.
She found that parents who did not monitor their children’s diets and did not make sure their children ate breakfast were more likely to have children who grew up to become overweight or obese.
In an interview, Crossman explained that eating breakfast is important because it appears to boost metabolism, and may prevent people from binge eating later in the day when they get very hungry.
Interestingly, children who were very close with their parents were more likely to become overweight in adulthood. This suggests that these children may get very upset when they move away from their parents, causing them to overeat. Alternatively, children close with their parents may model themselves after parents who don’t eat well themselves, Crossman noted.
Children with high self-esteem were less likely to become obese, as were those whose parents had a relatively high level of education. Household income had no effect on children’s later risk of weight gain.
For parents, the overall message of the study is very simple, Crossman noted: “Get (children) off the couch.”
