Grant: Operating Grant: Analyses of Existing Cohorts & Databases - IHDCYH

Obesity in Canadian youth has doubled since 1980. Obese children are more likely to become obese adults, and obesity is associated with a number of chronic diseases. Thus reducing childhood obesity is a top public health priority. While genetics play a role, most of the obesity risk is from behaviours. Interventions to fight obesity are usually targeted at schools but have been met with limited success. Nearly ¼ of Canadian children are already overweight or obese when they enter preschool. Thus a better understanding of how the family environment influences children's obesity risk is needed. Previous research focused on specific parenting behaviours, such as whether parents control the number of hours a child is allowed to watch TV. Much less is known about how the general parenting styles (how much affection or discipline parents use with their children) may affect children's obesity risk. Preliminary evidence suggests that parenting style may be affected by the child's characteristics (such as the child's sex, age, birth order, etc). However, the results are mixed and mainly from a limited number of cross-sectional samples. Large, longitudinal studies investigating these associations are sparse, and no longitudinal Canadian data have been reported. This study aims to improve our understanding of the early childhood origins of obesity, and longitudinal obesity risk throughout this developmental period. This study will not only identify the associations between parenting style and children's obesity risk at specific ages, but also of changes in associations over time. Data for the proposed project are from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD). The QLSCD is a 16-year birth cohort representative of singleton births in Quebec in 1998 (n=2,120). Our results will address a significant gap in the literature and will provide important knowledge for early prevention.