Association between maternal and paternal employment and their children’s weight status and unhealthy behaviours: does it matter who the working parent is?

Abstract

Background The growing number of employed women has been associated with an increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children. We sought to determine whether childhood overweight/obesity in Spain is associated with labour participation of mothers and fathers, and whether the identity of the main caregiver has an influence on child’s weight and unhealthy behaviour. Methods We used microdata from the 2010 and 2014 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children surveys performed in Spain (n = 32,694). Logistic and linear multi-level regression models were applied to assess the association between parental employment and children’s self-reported weight status, accounting for school effects and controlling for socioeconomic factors. Separated binary models were also fitted for consumption of fruit, sweets, screen viewing and sedentarism. Results In most cases, the significant associations between children’s weight and their parents’ work status disappeared once the models were adjusted for family wealth and education. However, we found persistent associations for some groups. Girls under 13 years-old living in households where the mother was the only employed parent were more likely to be affected by obesity and to report a higher body mass index value. Children in this type of household were more likely to show unhealthy lifestyles related to diet and leisure time activities. Conclusions Parents’ socioeconomic characteristics had a protective effect on their children’s risk of obesity. Unhealthy behaviours were observed in households with a non-working father and a working mother, although the link with obesity was limited to girls. Our results suggest the need for a more equally shared burden of caregiving.

Moderation of parental socioeconomic status on the relationship between birth health and developmental coordination disorder at early years

“…More importantly, our findings highlight the more significant contribution of mothers to infant health and child development than that of fathers, which is consistent with prior research ( 58 ). Despite the fact that there is support for the importance of paternal engagement in infant health ( 19 , 67 ), empirical evidence is relatively scarce.…”

“…Although the paternal and maternal employment status may be inter-related ( 58 ), the association between birth length and the probability of having DCD was moderated by the maternal employment status, indicating that maternal unemployment may play a buffering role in further decreasing the risk for having DCD when their children have better birth health (i.e., longer birth length herein ). Maternal employment status could affect many aspects of the development outcome of a child, including motor development ( 59 ).…”

“…As a result, this might increase the possibility to have only one child, which has been identified as a significant predictor of DCD, due to a lack of daily interaction with a sibling in the family and the overprotection of parents of their only child (56). On the other hand, better-educated mothers may have a better awareness of the negative consequences associated with poor birth health and be more likely to adopt compensatory behaviours, such as devoting more resources to less-endowed children, to minimize the adverse outcomes (57). This could interpret why the probability of having DCD is lower when birth length is shorter and the maternal educational level is higher in this study.…”

“…However, this finding seemingly stands in contrast to the "strategic investment" argument (76) that disadvantaged families concentrate resources on higher-ability children in an effort to reduce risk and maximize expected returns to human-capital investments, while advantaged families, on the other hand, adopt compensatory strategies, devote more resources to less-endowed children. This may be because, compared to advantaged families, "problematic" children from disadvantaged families may impose more financial and psychological burdens on their parents; as a results, these disadvantageous parents tend to spend more time with "easier" children (57).…”