Maternal efficacy and sedentary behavior rules predict child obesity resilience

In a paper just published in BMC Obesity with Prof. David Crawford as first author we aimed to identify longitudinal individual, social and environmental predictors of adiposity (BMI z-score), and of resilience to unhealthy weight gain, in healthy weight children and adolescents.
Two hundred healthy weight children aged 5–12 years at baseline and their parents living in socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods were surveyed at baseline and three years later. Children’s height and weight were objectively measured, parents completed a detailed questionnaire that examined the home, social and neighborhood environments, and objective measures of the neighborhood environment were assessed using geographic information system data. Children classified as healthy weight at baseline who had small or medium increases in their BMI z-score between baseline and three year follow up were categorized as ‘resilient to unhealthy weight gain’.
Maternal efficacy for preventing their child from engaging in sedentary behaviours and rules to limit sedentary behaviours were associated with better resilience.
The findings suggest that strategies to support parents to limit their children’s sedentary behavior may be important in preventing unhealthy weight gain in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.