This Reuter’s article summarizes a report from the Boston University School of Medicine and published in the June issue of “Pediatrics,” the journal of the AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics.

The key finding is 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. The report indicted that the fewest weight problems occur among children whose parents are "authoritative" -- having high expectations for self control but respectful of a child's opinions and who set clear boundaries.

According to the article, “The study also found that children of parents who are permissive, 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.” The study covered 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.

While the study offered possible clues as the reason for the causality, including “stress” it’s not intuitively obvious why there is linkage between parenting style and obesity.

However, my guess would be that children raised in an authoritarian household lack perceived control over their lives and over eating may be a reaction to this. Further, they may suffer from poor decision making skills which also lead them to over eat. And, lastly, authoritarian parents may impose a negative self image on children and over eating can go hand in hand with poor self image.

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