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. 2010 Apr;34(4):633-41.
doi: 10.1038/ijo.2009.288. Epub 2010 Jan 12.

Toddler self-regulation skills predict risk for pediatric obesity

P A Graziano  1 , S D Calkins, S P Keane
Affiliations

Toddler self-regulation skills predict risk for pediatric obesity

P A Graziano et al. Int J Obes (Lond). 2010 Apr.

Abstract

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.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Differentiating overweight/at risk children from normal weight children based on early self-regulation skills
*p<.05.
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