Childhood obesity has been increasing in recent years. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, about one in five children and teenagers in the United States met the clinical definition of obesity in 2024.
Preventing obesity in children is not simple. For many years, the main approaches have focused on encouraging healthy eating and regular physical activity. Researchers at Yale now suggest that another important factor should be added to that list: reducing stress in parents.
A research team led by Yale psychologist Rajita Sinha found evidence that lowering parental stress may help reduce the risk of obesity in young children.
“It’s the third leg of the stool,” said Sinha. “We already knew that stress can be a big contributor in the development of childhood obesity. The surprise was that when parents handled stress better, their parenting improved, and their young child’s obesity risk went down.”
The findings were published in the journal Pediatrics.
Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/
