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Parenting role in childhood obesity

Guest Editors:
Mekdes Gebremariam: Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, University of Oslo, Norway
Jiying Ling: Michigan State University College of Nursing, USA


BMC Public Health is called for submissions to our Collection on parenting role in childhood obesity. Childhood obesity has become a major public health issue and is raising concerns for the wellbeing of future generations.

Given the strong influence of the parental role on children’s behavior, health programs and policies to improve the awareness of parents about their children’s health, children’s eating behaviors and their own feeding practices are important for the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. 

To guarantee a better future for the next generations, parents need to engage in healthy behaviors, providing for the children an environment with plenty of healthy food options and discouraging sedentary behaviors.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Mekdes Gebremariam: Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, University of Oslo, Norway

Dr Mekdes Gebremariam is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the University of Oslo, and a Deputy Director at the Center for Global Health. Her research focuses on the identification of multilevel determinants of lifestyle behaviors and overweight/obesity among youth, in order to inform policy and practice. She has a particular interest and expertise in social inequalities in health and in the factors that mediate these inequalities. Dr Gebremariam has coordinated and led several research projects focusing on lifestyle behaviors and overweight/obesity among youth in Norway as well as in other contexts.
 

Jiying Ling: Michigan State University College of Nursing, USA

Dr Jiying Ling is an Associate Professor and PhD Program Assistant Director at Michigan State University College of Nursing. Her research focuses on advancing family health promotion through implementing multi-component, bio-behavioral interventions to reduce health disparities in childhood obesity. Her impact encompasses: Developing and disseminating highly scalable bio-behavioral interventions to reduce obesity among racially diverse families; Translating research into the national Head Start program to influence early childhood development policy; and Integrating research on prevention of childhood obesity into practice and education. She has received numerous prestigious awards, over $5 million in research funding, 79 publications, and over 130 presentations.
 


About the Collection

BMC Public Health welcomed for submissions to our Collection on parenting role in childhood obesity. 

Childhood obesity has become a major public health issue and is raising concerns for the wellbeing of future generations.

Although some children are at greater risk for obesity due to genetic factors, the family environment plays a primary role in the development and control of children’s eating behaviors. Parents are responsible for the setup of a healthy home environment, promoting healthy eating and physical activity.  

Given the strong influence of the parental role on children’s behavior, health programs and policies to improve the awareness of parents about their children’s health, children’s eating behaviors and their own feeding practices, are important for the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. 

Children tend to mimic their parents’ habits including their diet and physical activity. 

To guarantee a better future for the next generations, parents need to engage in healthy behaviors, providing for the children an environment with plenty of healthy food options and discouraging sedentary behaviors.

BMC Public Health had launched this Collection  for research on the role of parents in childhood obesity. We would particularly welcomed submissions addressing:

  • Parental attitudes in the development of children’s eating behaviors 
  • Parents’ roles in preventing and treating childhood obesity 
  • Family-based interventions for childhood obesity prevention
  • Programs to raise parents’ awareness on healthy food options and behaviors


Image credit: August de Richelieu / Pexels

  1. Childhood obesity is increasingly recognized as a major public health challenge worldwide, and excessive sedentary screen time is emerging as a key risk factor. This study aimed to assess the recreational scre...

    Authors: Xueting Ding, Ying Ji, Yuan Dong, Zhijing Li and Yan Zhang
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:1733
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Bulimia, which means a person has episodes of eating a very large amount of food (bingeing) during which the person feels a loss of control over their eating, is the most primitive reason for being overweight ...

    Authors: Hongwei Zhang, Ziqi Liu, Hui Zheng, Ting Xu, Lin Liu, Tao Xu, Ti-Fei Yuan and Xiaodong Han
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:653
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Childhood obesity is one of the most concerning public health issues globally and its implications on mortality and morbidity in adulthood are increasingly important. This study uses a unique dataset of Austra...

    Authors: Preety Srivastava, Trong-Anh Trinh, Karen T. Hallam, Leila Karimi and Bruce Hollingsworth
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:68
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Children of South Asian (SA) origin in the UK have lower levels of physical activity (PA), compared to their White counterparts. Parents play an important role in establishing PA habits among young children. T...

    Authors: Soyang Kwon, Namratha R. Kandula, Pooja S. Tandon and Nilay S. Shah
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2023 23:1590
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Active parental engagement is crucial in controlling childhood obesity. However, optimal strategies to engage parents and mechanisms linking parents’ involvement to childhood obesity prevention need further in...

    Authors: Jiying Ling and Mekdes Gebremariam
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2023 23:1118
    Content type: Editorial Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Parenting role in childhood obesity" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.