Previous research has found a mother's employment is associated with an increase in a child's body mass index (BMI). A new study, sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and published by the journal of "Child Development" has now found a direct correlation between the amount of time a mother works out of the house and a child's BMI.
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The study found that children of average height gained one pound (more than average growth), for every five months a mother worked -- the longer a woman worked, the more weight gained.
"Previous studies have looked at the relationship between weekly work hours and children's BMI," says the lead author of the study, Taryn Morrissey, Ph.D., an assistant professor of public administration and policy at American University. "Here, we went a step further and looked at the total number of years mothers were employed in order to measure the cumulative effects of employment."
According to the study, working mothers are more likely to have over weight children because
working mothers face time constraints which result is spending less time on healthy meal preparation
children spend less time getting physical exercise, perhaps given their greater participation in child care and
children with working mothers spend more time watching TV .
"It's important to emphasize that it seems to be the environmental factors associated with the total time that moms work, and not maternal employment per se, that contributes to an increase in children's BMI," says Morrissey. "It is not the mother's employment, but the environment."
To read the study in its entirety, click here.
As a working mother, do studies like this offend you? Does it offer help or hindrance? Do you think your children are any less healthy than stay-at-home moms? What do you do to ensure your children are healthy?