An examination of the use of food and physical activity as reinforcers by parents of normal weight and overweight children

Health problems previously thought only to be present among adults have now also been identified among children. Because of the recent rise in obesity, particularly among children, attention has been paid to efforts to better understand this phenomenon with the ultimate goal of curbing pediatric obesity. The current study examined the relationship between the use of food and physical activity as rewards and punishers by parents among a group of children (N=265). Because food is more rewarding for overweight children than normal weight children (Temple et al., 2008), it was hypothesized that parents of overweight children would report using food as a reinforcer more often than parents of normal weight children. Further distinctions in parent use of these reinforcers were hypothesized based on parent BMI, yearly household income, child age, and parent age. Results indicate that parents of overweight and normal weight children did not differ in their use of food nor physical activity as reward. However, younger parents (2.89, SD=1.45) rewarded their children with physical activity significantly more than older parents (2.30, SD=1.36; p=.001). No additional differences in reinforcer use were noted for income or parental BMI. These results have implications for interventions based on the lack of difference in reinforcer use by child and parent BMI. Interventions designed to promote physical activity need not be differentially tailored based on this element. Instead, the promotion of physical activity differently based on parent characteristics (i.e., age) may be presented to parents and directly addressed.