Abstract
Objectives
The family environment is an important contextual factor for parent and child weight within families. Using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, the current study examined (1) the effect of child and mother temperament (i.e., negative affectivity, effortful control, and impulsivity) on mother and child weight, (2) the effect of mother eating behaviors on mother and child weight, and (3) how temperament might moderate the relationships between mother eating behaviors and mother and child weight.
Methods
The sample consisted of 220 mother–child dyads with children between 4 and 6 years of age (66.8% classified as low-, 25.9% middle-, and 5.5% high-income). Mothers completed questionnaires on their own temperament and eating behaviors as well as child temperament. Weight measures were assessed in the laboratory for both mother and child.
Results
Mother’s negative affectivity and impulsivity were negatively related to mother’s weight while children’s impulsivity was positively related to children’s and mother’s weight. Mother’s eating behaviors were also positively related to mother’s weight. The interaction between child impulsivity and mother eating behaviors was significant; the association of mother eating behaviors with mother weight depended on child impulsivity. Specifically, when children had higher impulsivity, mothers had the highest weight. When children had average or lower impulsivity, mother weight was higher with higher endorsement of unhealthy eating behaviors.
Conclusions
Findings suggest that after adjusting for the interdependent nature of temperament traits and weight, child impulsivity is an important factor associated with current weight for both mothers and children. Results also provide important implications for the impact children can have on their mothers.
Significance
Parents and children do not exist in isolation; they respond to each other as well as other environmental and social factors. This study has provided an initial framework within the weight literature to account for how children’s and their mothers’ temperament traits simultaneously and independently relate to their own weight as well as to their family member’s weight. Accounting for the bidirectional nature of these relationships will assist in the development of prevention programs that target the different variables within the family system that may place children and parents at greater risk for the development of obesity.
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Funding
The larger research study and data collection was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (R03HD058734). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. The current secondary data analysis was funded by the 2018 Dissertation Research Award from the American Psychological Association. A portion of these findings were presented as a poster at the 2019 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
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MP and JL were involved with funding acquisition, conceptualization/design of the larger research study, methodology, and supervision/oversight of the study. TKO was responsible for current study conceptualization, formal data analysis, and drafting the initial manuscript. All authors reviewed and/or edited the manuscript and gave final approval of the version to be published.
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This research study was declared exempt by Arizona State University’s Institutional Review Board (Project Title: The Influence of Negative Affectivity and Effortful Control on Child Emotional Eating and Weight; Project Number: STUDY00005096). All children provided assent; all mothers provided consent for their participation as well as the participation of their child. All participants were reminded that at any point they were able to stop participating without having to explain why.
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Ohrt, T.K., Perez, M., Iida, M. et al. The Interdependent Nature of Mother’s and Children’s Temperament and Eating Behaviors on Weight. Matern Child Health J 27, 1382–1391 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-023-03696-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-023-03696-3