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Low parental support in late adolescence predicts obesity in young adulthood; Gender differences in a 12-year cohort of African Americans

BACKGROUND: Most studies that have investigated the link between parenting behaviors and risk of obesity among offsprings have mostly used a cross-sectional design, enrolled Caucasian samples, focused on childhood obesity, and covered aspects of parenting behaviors that directly influence energy bal...

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Autores principales: Assari, Shervin, Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard, Zimmerman, Marc A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449598/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26029673
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40200-015-0176-8
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author Assari, Shervin
Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard
Zimmerman, Marc A.
author_facet Assari, Shervin
Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard
Zimmerman, Marc A.
author_sort Assari, Shervin
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Most studies that have investigated the link between parenting behaviors and risk of obesity among offsprings have mostly used a cross-sectional design, enrolled Caucasian samples, focused on childhood obesity, and covered aspects of parenting behaviors that directly influence energy balance and food intake of the children. Thus, more longitudinal research is needed on how more general aspects of parenting influence obesity in young ethnic minority adults. The current longitudinal study aimed to test if baseline parental support predicts change in body mass index (BMI) of African Americans, and if this prediction varies based on gender of offspring. METHODS: The current study followed 227 young African American adults (109 male and 118 female) for 12 years from year 2000 (mean age 20) to year 2012 (mean age 32). All participants were enrolled from a disadvantaged urban area in the Midwest of the United States. Baseline demographics (age, gender), socio-economics (family structure, and parental employment), psychological symptoms (anxiety and depression), general parental support (maternal support, and paternal support) were measured. BMI was measured at baseline and at follow up. We used gender-specific linear regressions to test the predictive role of baseline paternal and maternal support (year 2000) on change in BMI (from 2000 to 2012). RESULTS: Regression analysis showed that among female African American young adults, high baseline maternal support was predictive of a lower increase in BMI from 2000 to 2012. The association remained significant while all covariates were in the model. We could not find such an association for male African American young adults. CONCLUSION: High maternal support appears to be protective against increases in BMI among African American female young adults. As parental support is a modifiable factor within available evidence-based interventions that enhance parenting, it should be included in obesity prevention programs for African American women. Policies and programs should support African American mothers in disadvantaged neighborhoods to enable them to provide high levels of parental support for their young adult daughters. Future research should test the efficacy of such programs and policies for reducing obesity among African American women.
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spelling pubmed-44495982015-05-31 Low parental support in late adolescence predicts obesity in young adulthood; Gender differences in a 12-year cohort of African Americans Assari, Shervin Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard Zimmerman, Marc A. J Diabetes Metab Disord Research Article BACKGROUND: Most studies that have investigated the link between parenting behaviors and risk of obesity among offsprings have mostly used a cross-sectional design, enrolled Caucasian samples, focused on childhood obesity, and covered aspects of parenting behaviors that directly influence energy balance and food intake of the children. Thus, more longitudinal research is needed on how more general aspects of parenting influence obesity in young ethnic minority adults. The current longitudinal study aimed to test if baseline parental support predicts change in body mass index (BMI) of African Americans, and if this prediction varies based on gender of offspring. METHODS: The current study followed 227 young African American adults (109 male and 118 female) for 12 years from year 2000 (mean age 20) to year 2012 (mean age 32). All participants were enrolled from a disadvantaged urban area in the Midwest of the United States. Baseline demographics (age, gender), socio-economics (family structure, and parental employment), psychological symptoms (anxiety and depression), general parental support (maternal support, and paternal support) were measured. BMI was measured at baseline and at follow up. We used gender-specific linear regressions to test the predictive role of baseline paternal and maternal support (year 2000) on change in BMI (from 2000 to 2012). RESULTS: Regression analysis showed that among female African American young adults, high baseline maternal support was predictive of a lower increase in BMI from 2000 to 2012. The association remained significant while all covariates were in the model. We could not find such an association for male African American young adults. CONCLUSION: High maternal support appears to be protective against increases in BMI among African American female young adults. As parental support is a modifiable factor within available evidence-based interventions that enhance parenting, it should be included in obesity prevention programs for African American women. Policies and programs should support African American mothers in disadvantaged neighborhoods to enable them to provide high levels of parental support for their young adult daughters. Future research should test the efficacy of such programs and policies for reducing obesity among African American women. BioMed Central 2015-05-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4449598/ /pubmed/26029673 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40200-015-0176-8 Text en © Assari et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Assari, Shervin
Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard
Zimmerman, Marc A.
Low parental support in late adolescence predicts obesity in young adulthood; Gender differences in a 12-year cohort of African Americans
title Low parental support in late adolescence predicts obesity in young adulthood; Gender differences in a 12-year cohort of African Americans
title_full Low parental support in late adolescence predicts obesity in young adulthood; Gender differences in a 12-year cohort of African Americans
title_fullStr Low parental support in late adolescence predicts obesity in young adulthood; Gender differences in a 12-year cohort of African Americans
title_full_unstemmed Low parental support in late adolescence predicts obesity in young adulthood; Gender differences in a 12-year cohort of African Americans
title_short Low parental support in late adolescence predicts obesity in young adulthood; Gender differences in a 12-year cohort of African Americans
title_sort low parental support in late adolescence predicts obesity in young adulthood; gender differences in a 12-year cohort of african americans
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449598/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26029673
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40200-015-0176-8
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