Relationship between maternal employment and childhood obesity among households in Los Angeles County

Background: Recently, scholars have proposed the positive relationship between maternal employment and childhood obesity. This cross-sectional study aims to examine the relationship between maternal employment and childhood obesity using empirical data from households in Los Angeles County.

Methods: The study used data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) Waves 1 collected in 2001 and 2002. Study subjects are 637 adolescents aged 12-17 years and their female primary care givers living in the same household. The indicator of childhood obesity is Body Mass Index (BMI) percentile calculated by self-reported height and weight. Descriptive, ANOVA, Multiple Regression, and Logistic Regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations among childhood obesity, maternal employment status, and other covariates.

Results: Among the children, 16% were obese (BMI ≥ 95th percentile) and 19.6% were overweight (BMI between 85th and 95th percentile). Employed mothers were less likely to have dinner with their children, but neither maternal employment status nor frequency of family dinner was associated with childhood obesity. In addition, maternal employment was not associated with the hours that children spent in watching TV on the weekday, while the TV-watching hour on the weekday was a significant predictor of childhood obesity.

Conclusion: Findings indicated no significant relationship between maternal employment and childhood obesity using the L.A.FANS data, which differed from results in previous studies. We suggested further investigations to explore the impacts of maternal employment on childhood obesity and its risk factors including dietary and sedentary lifestyle.