The Influence of Parenting Change on Pediatric Weight Control

Objective: Parenting style was examined as a predictor of weight loss maintenance in behavioral family-based pediatric obesity treatment.

Research Methods And Procedures: Fifty obese children who participated in a behavioral family-based pediatric obesity treatment were studied. Hierarchical regression tested the incremental effect of baseline parenting and parenting during treatment on children's percentage overweight change over 12 months, beyond demographics and adherence to targeted behaviors.

Results: Children's percentage overweight significantly decreased at 6 (-16.3) and 12 (-11.1) months. Adherence to program goals significantly increased variance accounted for in the regression model by 10.8%, whereas adding baseline father acceptance and change in father acceptance accounted for another 20.5%. The overall model accounted for 40.6% of the variance in pediatric weight control. ANOVA showed significantly greater percentage overweight decrease from baseline for youth with fathers who increased their acceptance vs. those who decreased acceptance at 6 (-19.8 vs. -14.6) and 12 (-17.4 vs. -8.1) months.

Discussion: Youth who perceive an increase in father acceptance after treatment had better changes in percentage overweight over 12 months than youth with lower ratings of father acceptance. Future directions include examining how other parenting dimensions impact pediatric obesity treatment outcome and how parental acceptance can be enhanced to improve child weight control.