A mother’s relationship with her toddler in terms of sensitivity to their cues and needs, as well as the child’s sense of emotional security, impacts on their subsequent chances of being obese teenagers, researchers from the Ohio State University College of Public Health, and Temple University, reported in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics.
Sarah Anderson, Ph.D., Robert Whitaker, MD, MPH, and team set out to find out whether teenage obesity might be linked to the quality of early mother-child relationship.
The researchers gathered data on 977 individuals who had taken part in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Mother-child interaction had been observed and assessed when the baby/toddlers were aged 15, 24 and 36 months. Data included levels of child attachment security as well as maternal sensitivity.
The mother-child relationship was given a score in each case, during the three ages of the child – scores indicated how low maternal sensitivity was, as well as insecure levels of attachment. Those with the highest scores had the lowest maternal sensitivity and most insecure levels of attachment.
The quality of early maternal-child relationship impacts on the child’s obesity risk later on
Obesity during adolescence was defined as a higher than the 95th percentile in BMI terms at 15 years of age.
Below are some highlights of their findings:
- 24.7% of the children had scores of 3 or more, indicating poor-quality maternal-child relationships
- 22% of the children scored 0, indicating no insecure attachment or low maternal sensitivity
- 26,1% of those with a score of at least 3 were obese at 15 years of age
- 15.5% of those with a score of 2 were obese at 15 years of age
- 12.1% of those with a score of 1 were obese at 15 years of age
- 13% of those with a score of 0 were obese at 15 years of age
- Those with the poorest quality scores were 2.45 more likely to be obese at 15 compared to those with the best quality scores
- Obesity risk at 15 was more closely linked to low maternal sensitivity early on in life, compared to insecure attachment
The authors concluded:
“Poor quality of the early maternal-child relationship was associated with a higher prevalence of adolescent obesity. Interventions aimed at improving the quality of maternal-child interactions should consider assessing effects on children’s weight and examining potential mechanisms involving stress response and emotion regulation.”
Perhaps the dysregulation in the function of stress response systems is more common among children with low maternal sensitivity and insecure attachment, the researchers suggest. A child is helped by his/her mother to develop a healthy response to stress by protecting them from extreme stress levels – this is done through continuous support, which results in appropriate stress levels and consequent behaviors, etc.
Written by Christian Nordqvist