![]() ![]() #MOTHERS X AND O COOKIES FULL#In Figure 1 we show the hypothesized, full family-environment model, in which use of restrictive child-feeding practices predicted daughters’ self-control in eating, which in turn predicted daughters’ relative weight. Mothers may play an especially important role in their daughters’ developing controls of food intake, especially in the development of dieting and eating problems ( 16– 20). This research focused on girls and their mothers because problems of eating and energy balance, including weight concerns, chronic dieting, and eating disorders, differ by sex and are especially pervasive among females. This theory says that parents will impose greater restrictive control over their daughters’ eating if 1) eating and appearance are particularly valued by, or problematic for, the parent, or 2) the child is perceived to be at risk of overweight. This model is based on our prior research ( 11, 14, 15) and was inspired by the obesity-proneness model presented by Costanzo and Woody ( 10). The purpose of the present study was to test a model that focuses on one aspect of the nonshared family environment, the effects of mothers’ child-feeding practices on their daughters’ eating and overweight ( Figure 1). Parental attempts to control and restrict children’s food intakes increase with increasing child overweight, especially if the child is a girl ( 11, 14, 15). For instance, Klesges et al ( 12) reported that parents used different kinds of prompts for eating with overweight and normal-weight children, and Waxman and Stunkard ( 13) reported that obese boys were given larger portions and treated differently at mealtimes than were their thinner siblings. Although siblings in the same household may eat from the same refrigerator and at the same table, children’s experiences with food and eating are generally of the nonshared variety, shaped in part by the child-feeding practices that they experience ( 11– 13). Parents do not treat all their children alike parenting practices are shaped by each child’s characteristics, including sex, age, birth order, physical appearance, and specific abilities ( 8, 10). However, research on the effects of family environments on children’s development has shown that nonshared environmental influences are pervasive within families ( 6, 8, 9). This view, in combination with the failure to find effects of shared environments, has led some to conclude that family environments do not matter ( 7). Traditionally, family environments were viewed as shared, whereas it was assumed that nonshared environmental influences were found outside the family ( 6). ![]() Research findings showed that nonshared environmental effects had a substantial influence on obesity, whereas the influence of shared environmental effects was negligible ( 1, 2, 4). Shared environmental effects are perfectly correlated for family members and thus affect their phenotypes in the same way, but nonshared environmental effects are experienced differently and act to produce differences in phenotypes across family members ( 1, 2, 5). Environmental effects can be categorized as either shared or nonshared. Across studies, the estimated environmental effects on the variance in adiposity are substantial ( 1, 2, 4). In behavioral genetic approaches to the study of obesity, genetic and environmental contributions to the phenotype are estimated. The probability of being obese as an adult is ≥3 times higher for the young child with one parent who is obese, compared with a child who has no obese parents ( 1– 3). Familial patterns of adiposity are well established. ![]()
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