This research will make pleasant reading for many mothers...

Traditionally one would expect that the mother of a family would be the person likely to have the biggest impact on diet and nutrition in a household. A mother is normally the cook at home, the one who goes to buy the groceries and the one who is the boss of the kitchen and thus it makes complete sense that your eating habits are determined mainly by the influence of your mother.  But not so according to some new research!

The Melbourne's Centre for Community Child Health recently conducted an extensive study that looked at around 5,000 young children of the ages of four and five, (a crucial time for the development of eating habits) and came to the conclusion that characteristics and behavior of fathers were even more influential than mothers on the likelihood of children becoming obese.

The researchers noted that the way that fathers dealt with their children was far more important in determining obesity in children then the way that mothers dealt with their children. In a nutshell children who had fathers that parented in a “permissive or disengaged” manner were much more probable to be overweight or obese. Those children whose fathers parented with a “good balance of warmth, attention and discipline” had a much reduced likelihood of suffering from weight problems.

This research will make pleasant reading for many mothers who are told that the problem of their children being overweight is all down to them and will encourage fathers to take a more active role in parenting their children so that they do not have obesity problems.

The researchers looked at mothers and fathers and categorised the way that they looked after their children. They were put into four different categories which were 1. Authoritative, 2.Authoritarian, 3.Permissive and 4.Disengaged, and all of the results were adjusted after taking into account the Body Mass Index of the father which other research shows can also have an effect on the body mass of children. The category of the father showed a direct correlation to obesity whereas the category for the mother had absolutely no impact whatsoever.

This research indicates to us much about the psychological influences that parents can exert on their children and how obesity is very much a behavioural problem which can start at a very early age.