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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 ive of their child needs.

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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 

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Authoritative vs. Neglectful

AUTHORITATIVE PARENTING STYLE Low youth BMI  More frequent physical activity  Healthy dietary intake 

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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 ¼ 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 parent–adolescent 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.