A bad relationship with your mother can do more than leave emotional scars, it can also increase your waistline. A new study found that children who did not have close emotional bonds with their mothers during childhood were significantly more likely to be obese as teenagers. Click below to read the rest.
The study, conducted at Ohio State University, examined the mother-child relationships of 977 kids born in 1991.
Researchers measured how the mothers interacted with their children at numerous points during their childhoods, focusing on emotional attachment and the children’s feelings of safety within their families.
The less emotionally secure a child felt, the more likely he or she would struggle with obesity as he or she got older, the study found.
Researchers determined that 26.1% of the children who had troubled relationships with their mothers were obese at the age of 15, while only 13% of children who were close to their mothers were obese by the same age.
“Sensitive parenting increases the likelihood that a child will have a secure pattern of attachment and develop a healthy response to stress,†said Sarah Anderson, assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State and lead author of the study, according to CNN.
“A well-regulated stress response could in turn influence how well children sleep and whether they eat in response to emotional distress — just two factors that affect the likelihood for obesity.â€
The study supported the researchers’ earlier findings that young children without a strong emotional relationship with their parents were more likely to be obese by the age of 4 1/2.
Anderson was quick to note that the findings should not be used to blame mothers, but should be seen as an opportunity to intervene in mother-child relationships while children are still young.
“It is possible that childhood obesity could be influenced by interventions that try to improve the emotional bonds between mothers and children rather than focusing only on children’s food intake and activity,” she said.
