Toddler self-regulation skills predict risk for pediatric obesity

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of early self-regulation skills, including emotion regulation, sustained attention, and inhibitory control/reward sensitivity, in predicting pediatric obesity in early childhood. METHOD: Participants for this study included 57 children (25 girls) obtained from three different cohorts participating in a larger ongoing longitudinal study. At 2 years of age, participants participated in several laboratory tasks designed to assess their self-regulation abilities. Height and weight measures were collected when children were 2 and 5.5 years of age. RESULTS: Self-regulation skills in toddlerhood were predictive of both normal variations in BMI development and pediatric obesity. Specifically, emotion regulation was the primary self-regulation skill involved in predicting normative changes in BMI as no effects were found for sustained attention or inhibitory control/reward sensitivity. However, both emotion regulation and inhibitory control/reward sensitivity predicted more extreme weight problems (i.e., pediatric obesity), even after controlling for 2yr BMI. Thus, toddlers with poorer emotion regulation skills and lower inhibitory control skills/higher reward sensitivity were more likely to be classified as overweight/at risk at 5.5 years of age. CONCLUSION: Early self-regulation difficulties across domains (i.e., behavioral, and emotional) represent significant individual risk factors for the development of pediatric obesity. Mechanisms by which early self-regulation skills may contribute to the development of pediatric obesity are discussed.