Toddler self-regulation skills predict risk for pediatric obesity

Objective: To investigate the role of early self-regulation skills, including emotion regulation, sustained attention and inhibitory control/reward sensitivity, in predicting pediatric obesity in early childhood. Method: Participants for this study included 57 children (25 girls) obtained from three...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Journal of Obesity 2010-04, Vol.34 (4), p.633-641
Main Authors: Graziano, P.A, Calkins, S.D, Keane, S.P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Body mass index
Child Behavior - physiology
Child Behavior - psychology
child development
Child Development - physiology
child nutrition
Child, Preschool
cognition
cohort studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Development and progression
Eating behavior
emotion regulation
Emotional regulation
Emotions
Exercise
Female
General aspects
Genetic aspects
human behavior
human diseases
Humans
Influence
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Medical sciences
Metabolic diseases
Obesity
Obesity - etiology
Obesity - psychology
Obesity in children
Overweight
Pediatrics
Physiology
prediction
preschool children
Risk Factors
Self Efficacy
Self-control (Child psychology)
Skills
Toddlers
Weight Gain - physiology
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Summary:Objective: To investigate the role of early self-regulation skills, including emotion regulation, sustained attention and inhibitory control/reward sensitivity, in predicting pediatric obesity in early childhood. Method: Participants for this study included 57 children (25 girls) obtained from three different cohorts participating in a larger ongoing longitudinal study. At 2 years of age, participants participated in several laboratory tasks designed to assess their self-regulation skills. Height and weight measures were collected when children were 2 and 5.5 years of age. Results: Self-regulation skills in toddlerhood were predictive of both normal variations in body mass index (BMI) development and pediatric obesity. Specifically, emotion regulation was the primary self-regulation skill involved in predicting normative changes in BMI as no effects were found for sustained attention or inhibitory control/reward sensitivity. However, both emotion regulation and inhibitory control/reward sensitivity predicted more extreme weight problems (that is, pediatric obesity), even after controlling for 2-year BMI. Thus, toddlers with poor emotion regulation skills and lower inhibitory control skills/higher reward sensitivity were more likely to be classified as overweight/at risk at 5.5 years of age. Conclusion: Early self-regulation difficulties across domains (that is, behavioral and emotional) represent significant individual risk factors for the development of pediatric obesity. Mechanisms by which early self-regulation skills may contribute to the development of pediatric obesity are discussed.
ISSN:0307-0565
1476-5497
DOI:10.1038/ijo.2009.288