THURSDAY, Aug. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Girls who have low inhibitory self-control are more apt to become overweight, especially if their parents try to restrict their eating habits, according to a study in the August Journal of Pediatrics.
Stephanie L. Anzman, of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, and colleagues tracked 197 non-Hispanic Caucasian girls over a 10-year period and assessed them at ages 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 for inhibitory control levels (maternal assessment), parental eating restrictions (the girls' assessment), the girls' body mass indexes, the parents' body mass indexes, and the parents' education and income.
The researchers found that girls who had lower inhibitory control at age 7 had higher body mass indexes at all ages, exhibited greater weight gains, and were 1.95 times more likely to be overweight by 15 years of age. Girls who reported more stringent parental eating restrictions tended to have the strongest inverse relationship between inhibitory control and weight.
"The current results indicate that high restriction in combination with low inhibitory control sets the most at-risk group apart, highlighting that some individuals may be more susceptible to risky weight outcomes than others, even when experiencing the same parenting practices. Similarly, restrictive parenting practices may only be problematic if the child is low on inhibitory control. The important point inherent in both of these interpretations is that it is the combination of both low inhibitory control and high restriction that is most problematic and that neither of these constructs may be a problem without the other," the authors write.
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