Parenting Tips: New Study Suggests Harsh Parenting Leads To Child Obesity

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By Dianne Franc , Parent Herald Apr 26, 08:17 pm

A new study published on April 24 by scientists at the University of California-Davis claims that harsh parenting is connected to child obesity. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also partnered with the said institution to report their observations on parenting and its link to a child's health.

New India Express reported this study stating that the harsh behavior of parents when they are trying to discipline their children, affects their child's weight. Researchers also found out that a co-parent who uses warmth and kindness in applying discipline won't be able to solve the damage that was already done to the child by their spouse or partner.

A photo posted by @doggiedemon on Apr 3, 2016 at 9:38am PDT

The head of this study, Thomas Schofield of Iowa State University, said that parents who are harsh to their kids would jeopardize the physical health of their child. The worst part is that it doesn't matter how their spouse or co-parent do their best to compensate their method that involves harshness, the negative effects on the child won't easily go away.

It is the first research ever published that has used all the information they have gathered based on the interaction between children and their parents. These interactions were also used to learn about the changes in a child's physical health starting from their adolescent years to early adulthood. Scientists of this project filmed 451 families to make observations on how parents deal with their parenting skills and its effect on their child.

Futurity published this study saying that parents who practiced harsh parenting didn't necessarily had to hit their child physically. Simply being self-centered and rejecting their kids were enough behaviors to cause damage to their child's physical body. Schofield said that this kind of parenting "creates a chronic stressful environment that children can be exposed to for nearly two decades."

What do you think of harsh parenting? Share us your thoughts about in the comments section below.