FAMILY ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS INFLUENCING THE DEVELOPING BEHAVIORAL CONTROLS OF FOOD INTAKE AND CHILDHOOD OVERWEIGHT

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All IN THE FAMILY: MEDIATORS OF FAMILY RESEMBLANCES IN EATING AND WEIGHT

Family resemblances in weight status are well documented.38, 41, 56, 70 Overweight parents are more likely to have overweight children than nonoverweight parents. Familial patterns of adiposity result from genes and family environmental factors working in concert, particularly for young children growing up within the family. Behavioral genetics research illustrates the important contribution of genetics to the obese phenotype, with genes or genetic similarity among family members explaining

CHILDREN'S FOOD PREFERENCES: GENETIC PREDISPOSITIONS AND FOOD NEOPHOBIA

During the first years of life, children learn an enormous amount about food and eating, and this learning occurs in the family context. As a result of early experience with food and eating, children's genetic predispositions become patterns of food preferences and food intake, and these influence children's weight status. Genetic predispositions include the preference for sweet and salty tastes, the rejection of sour and bitter tastes, a tendency to reject novel foods, and the ability to learn

CHILDREN'S REGULATION OF ENERGY INTAKE: RESPONSIVENESS TO HUNGER AND SATIETY CUES

Research has shown that infants are able to regulate their energy intake based on their physiologic needs, reflecting a responsiveness to internal hunger and satiety cues. Fomon37 found that infants older than approximately 6 weeks adjusted their formula intake in response to differences in the energy density of the formula, consuming greater volumes of formula low in energy density than of formula high in energy density, so that total energy intake across conditions was similar.37 Preschool

CHILDREN'S FOOD-SELECTION AND -INTAKE PATTERNS: FAMILIAL RESEMBLANCES

Children's food-intake patterns are influenced by their food preferences and sensitivity to hunger and satiety cues and the foods that parents make available to children, the extent to which parents' restrict children's access to food, and parents' own eating behaviors, all of which are influenced by the context in which parents feed children. With respect to food availability, Davis24, 25 showed many years ago that, when young children were offered a variety of healthful foods in the absence

PARENT CHILD-FEEDING PRACTICES AND AN OBESITY-PROMOTING ENVIRONMENT

Feeding practices, including restriction and pressure, that can promote children's overeating in response to the availability of palatable food may be especially problematic in today's obesigenic food environment.44 US portion sizes have become large,44 especially relative to children's energy needs. In addition, fast-food stores, convenience marts, and vending machines have expanded the availability of energy-dense, inexpensive, palatable foods. Concurrent lifestyle changes include the

CHILDREN'S EATING PATTERNS: LINKS TO OVERWEIGHT

Most of this article has focused on familial factors, outlined in Figure 1, that shape children's eating patterns and how these factors are linked to parents' weight status. A discussion of behavioral mediators of familial similarity in weight status, however, is not complete without considering links between children's eating patterns, including food preferences, energy regulation, and food intake, and children's weight status.

Children with a higher percentage of body fat or body mass index

SUMMARY

Although a large body of research has assessed direct genetic links between parent and child weight status, relatively little research has assessed the extent to which parents (particularly parents who are overweight) select environments that promote overweight among their children. Parents provide food environments for their children's early experiences with food and eating. These family eating environments include parents' own eating behaviors and child-feeding practices. Results of the

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    Address reprint requests to Leann Lipps Birch, PhD Department of Human Development and Family Studies The Pennsylvania State University S-211 Henderson Building University Park, PA 16802 e-mail: [email protected]

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    Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

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