Parenting Styles And Weight-Related Behavior Analysis Paper

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Over the last few decades, child obesity rates have skyrocketed. Approximately 20% of children and young adults are classified as obese and these numbers are only expected to climb. Likewise, parenting styles, physical activity, and adolescent dietary intakes have begun to alter and change. In April of 2010, the Journal of Adolescent Health published a study titled, “Parenting Styles as a Predictor of Adolescent Weight and Weight-Related Behaviors”. The purpose of this study was to identify if there is any correlation between how a child is being parented, and his/her weight and weight-related behaviors. This study used a Correlation/Regression Analyses style to compare data collected through the two-phased Project EAT (in-class assessments from 1999 were used as well as mailed surveys from 2004). Since this study was prospective and longitudinal, it can be classified as a cohort study. …show more content…
Of the population, 1.368 were female and 1.130 were male. It is important to note that there were originally 4,746 participants, but only 2,516 followed up with the Project Eat-II survey. The participants were gathered from ethnically and economically diverse schools throughout Minnesota. As for age, the middle-school participants averaged around 12.8 years old at the first phase of the study, and 17.2 years old at the final phase. The high school students averaged 15.8 years old at the start, and 20.4 years old at the end. The participants were questioned on their mother and/or father’s parenting style (i.e. authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, or neglectful). Five years later, they were questioned about their BMI, fruit and vegetable intake, and time spent exercising (in