Victorian researchers say that while many parents are concerned about children’s physical activity levels, their parenting strategies are often counterproductive

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Australian children are becoming overweight and obese in part because their parents are disciplining them in ways counterproductive to good health, a new report has found.

The VicHealth research was conducted by the Centre for Physical Activity at Deakin University, and analysed existing studies about why children are becoming heavier.

It found the family environment was the most important factor in determining children’s physical activity levels, with parental habits greatly impacting their children.

The leader of the research, Associate Professor Anna Timperio, said while parents were concerned by their children’s overuse of electronic media and time spent watching television, their parenting strategies were sometimes inconsistent with those concerns.

“Parents say they are concerned about kids who sit for long periods of time without moving, but they may also allow these devices in their child’s bedroom, and we know having a television in the bedroom is associated with having a higher body mass index,” she said.

“Parents might also allow children to eat in front of the TV or use screen time as a reward for good behaviour, which doesn’t promote physical activity and can normalise screen time.”

Almost one in four Australian children are overweight or obese, while one in three are expected to be by 2025, the report said. One in five children get the recommended hour of physical activity every day, and fewer than one in three met the recommendation for daily screen time limits, it said.

Parents who ate breakfast, exercised, or had meals together as a family tended to have children who ate more fruit and vegetables and who were also more physically active, the report found.

“One easy thing parents can do is to eat together with their children and to turn the TV off while doing so,” Timperio said.

“However, setting good routines can be really hard for busy parents, so this isn’t about blaming parents, but giving them some simple tips to coincide with the start of the new school term that they might find useful.”

The report found factors beyond parents’ control also influenced the weight of their children. For example, living in close proximity to schools and other facilities made it more likely children would walk to and from those facilities, as did safe road crossing points, play space design, and well connected streets.

The report recommended urban planners consider children in their design of community facilities, and that sporting clubs consider how they could provide opportunities for children across socio-economic backgrounds to become involved.

A professor of public health at the University of Melbourne, Rob Moodie, said a balance needed to be struck between personal responsibility and government responsibility in tackling obesity.

“Where that balance lies is dependent on the social and economic circumstances of the population you’re dealing with, such as employment, income and environmental factors,” he said.

“Governments need to step in and support local council and primary schools to provide them with good facilities that promote physical activity.

“I think we’re failing to save children but also adults from obesity by virtue of an inability of governments to really intervene in area such as food labelling.”

In December, the government implemented a health star labelling regime, where food manufacturers could sign up to have their products rated from half a star up to five stars for the healthiest products.

But a review from the consumer group Choice released last month found many food manufacturers were not signing up to the voluntary system, prompting health experts to call for it to be made mandatory.