Introduction
Childhood and adolescent obesity have recently reached epidemic levels in the United States. About 17% of children in the United States are obese (Derks et al., 2017). Being overweight is a chronic disease characterized by excessive adipose tissue accumulation, usually due to excessive food intake and low energy consumption. This disease can affect all aspects of children’s lives, including their psychological, cardiovascular health, and overall physical health. The link between being overweight and its effects on overall health makes it a public health issue for children and adolescents. Due to the increasing prevalence of obesity among children, many studies have been conducted to determine which associations and risk factors increase the likelihood that a child will be obese (Sjunnestrand et al., 2019). Moreover, due to its importance to public health, it is necessary to monitor the growing trend towards obesity in children closely and sensitively. Obesity can be caused by genetic, psychological, lifestyle, diet, environmental, and hormonal factors. However, even though so many factors can influence the occurrence of obesity, parents are considered the main culprit. Many factors influence obesity in children, and the key ones are not the parents but the environment and genetics.
Pressure on Parents
The role of parents in obesity is not a key factor. The home and family environment has been studied for decades with the assumption that it is a decisive factor in determining the health and development of children (Derks et al., 2017). To reduce the risks of obesity, health professionals often recommend a strict diet instead of instilling healthy eating habits in children, which leads to a restrictive diet (Sjunnestrand et al., 2019). Many parents have to ignore children’s biological needs and feelings of hunger and satiety, reducing portions to achieve an average BMI level. However, studies have proven that dietary restriction, on the contrary, is a risk factor for being overweight since it can hinder the development of healthy self-regulation of food intake and, consequently, lead to overeating when food is freely available (Derks et al., 2017). Thus, the generally accepted opinion that parental behavior plays a crucial role in the occurrence of obesity in children leads to restrictive diets at home, as parents worry and try to help children. However, restrictive diets are most often a factor that increases the chances of obesity.
Influence of the External Environment
Supporters of the fact that parents are the main factor in the occurrence of overweight in children often argue that the external environment forms children’s diet and eating habits. However, they forget that the children’s climate does not end in the parental home. School is one of the most critical places for effective intervention and the fight against obesity, as children spend most of their time at school. The food environment next door to the school is strongly associated with being overweight. For example, a mini market within 800m of the school was associated with higher overweight among students (Jia, 2019). The availability of high-calorie and less expensive foods, combined with the widespread advertising and easy availability of these products, have significantly contributed to the growing trend toward obesity (Sjunnestrand et al., 2019). Thus, it can be noted that the environment also has an essential influence on the occurrence of overweight children.
Genetic Factors
The other most significant argument is that a genetic predisposition forces parents to adapt eating styles for their children. New research suggests that parents do not cause new nutritional features in their children but become a reaction to existing ones. The study found that children with a higher genetic body mass index had a higher level of parental restrictions. Children with a lower body mass index had a higher pressure level, suggesting that parents adjusted their strategies for each child (Quah et al., 2019). Obesity is found in genetically predisposed people and includes biological protection against increased body fat, the mechanism of which can be partially explained by the interaction between brain reward and accumulation of lipid metabolites or other mechanisms. which damage the neurons of the hypothalamus (Sanyaolu et al., 2019). Even in families where fraternal twins differed in their genetic predisposition, parents were stricter with twins who tended to have more weight and put more pressure on twins who tended to weigh less (Selzam et al., 2018). The results of these studies challenge the prevailing view that parental behavior is the main factor influencing a child’s weight.
Counterargument
However, parents can still influence their children’s high body mass index. As a result of the study, it was found that the body mass index of each child depends on the mother’s BMI by an average of 20% and the father’s BMI by 20% (Dolton and MiMi, 2017). This ratio was constant for both developed and developing countries, for the country with the highest percentage of obesity among the population, such as the United States, and vice versa, such as China and Indonesia. The analysis seems to be demosntrating that the degree of influence of parental BMI on the child’s body weight is not uniform. The “parental” contribution is lowest in the thinnest children — about 10% of the mother’s BMI and 10% of the father’s BMI. In obese children, this proportion can reach 30% for each parent (Dolton and MiMi, 2017). Their tendency to be overweight is more than half determined by heredity and the family’s lifestyle. Thus, parents still play a role in their children’s obesity, not behaviorally, but at the genetic level.
Conclusion
Thus, the argument that parents are the cause of obesity in children seems to be not valid. The pressure exerted on parents in connection with body mass index indicators affects the formation of a diet at home. This leads to restrictive nutrition measures, which can only worsen the problem in the future. Therefore, society must pay attention to the fact that childhood obesity is not the parents’ fault. Although a complete picture of all the risk factors associated with obesity remains unattainable, many studies have concluded that environment and genetics are of the highest importance in the development of overweight in children and adolescents. The external environment, such as the organization of meals and physical activity at school, and the availability of fast-food restaurants and shops near the school, are all strongly connected with increased body mass index. It is also important not to forget that genetic factors also play a role. The genes responsible for the feeling of satiety and food satisfaction are regulators of the eating behavior of children. Summarizing all the above, one can say that parents do not play a vital role in the occurrence of obesity in children.
Works Cited
Derks, Ivonne PM, et al. “Testing the Direction of Effects Between Child Body Composition and Restrictive Feeding Practices: Results from a Population-based Cohort.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol.106, no. 3, 2017, pp. 783-790.
Dolton, Peter, and Mimi Xiao. “The Intergenerational Transmission of Body Mass Index Across Countries.” Economics & Human Biology, vol. 24, 2017, pp. 140-152.
Jia, Peng, et al. “Effects of School Neighborhood Food Environments on Childhood Obesity at Multiple Scales: a Longitudinal Kindergarten Cohort Study in the USA.” BMC Medicine, vol. 17 no. 1, 2019, pp. 1-15.
Sanyaolu, Adekunle, et al. “Childhood and Adolescent Obesity in the United States: a Public Health Concern.” Global Pediatric Health, vol. 6, 2019, 2333794X19891305.
Sjunnestrand, My, et al. “Planting a Seed-child Health Care Nurses’ Perceptions of Speaking to Parents about Overweight and Obesity: a Qualitative Study within the STOP Project.” BMC Public Health, vol. 19 no. 1, 2019, pp. 1-11.
Selzam, Saskia, et al. “Evidence for Gene-environment Correlation in Child Feeding: Links Between Common Genetic Variation for BMI in Children and Parental Feeding Practices.” PLoS Genetics, vol. 14 no. 11, 2018, e1007757.
Quah, Phaik Ling, et al. “Longitudinal Analysis Between Maternal Feeding Practices and Body Mass Index (BMI): A study in Asian Singaporean preschoolers.” Frontiers in Nutrition, vol. 6, 2019, p.32.