The Role Of Parenting Styles On A Child s Weight Status

The role of parenting styles on a child’s weight status will be explored. 20 families (10 families of overweight/obese children and 10 normal weight status) will be used to gage the effects of parenting on a child’s weight. Participants will be asked to participate in video recording of a family meal time and will be evaluated on the type of parenting style demonstrated throughout dinner. Several scales including the General Parental Scale and Family Mealtime Interaction Coding System will be used to see if parental control and authoritarian style parenting is demonstrated throughout mealtimes. It is predicted that a more restrictive parenting style used during mealtimes will lead to an increase in the weight status of the children.†¦show more content†¦In most cases the family is seen as the main support system for a child, and therefore can have detrimental effects on their health (Halliday, Palma, Mellor, Green, Renzaho 2014). For a young child, this can be especially harmful they are often dependent upon the parent to set an example of feeding habits and maintaining a weight status. Literature Review Currently the view of overweight children is mainly contributed to hereditary influences, but research has shown this may not necessarily be the case. There seems to be a complex, relationship between various variables that can influence the child’s weight status. One of these influences being currently studied in depth is the concept of parenting styles being one of the causes of the fluctuation of weight status in children. The family context seems to mainly influence is energy intake. The family context comprised of two sections. This includes parental support comprising of affective warmth and acceptance, the other half includes parental control. Parental control is referred to as â€Å"attempts to monitor the child’s eating by restricting the child from eating certain foods or pressuring the child to eat other foods† (Braet, Moens, Soetens 2007). Therefore the type of parenting style a parent utilizes has certain levels of parental control and warmth determining how they