University of New England, School of Cognitive, Behavioural and Social Sciences, Booloominbah Drive, Armidale, New South Wales 2350, Australia.
Soc Sci Med. 2010 Jun;70(11):1816-24. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.01.040. Epub 2010 Feb 20.
Alarm about the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity has focussed attention on individual lifestyle behaviours that may contribute to unhealthy weight. More distal predictors such as maternal employment may also be implicated since working mothers have less time to supervise children's daily activities. The research reported here used two waves of data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to investigate whether mothers' hours in paid work shape young children's television viewing, snacking and physical activity, and through those lifestyle behaviours, children's weight at ages 4-5 years and 6-7 years. At both ages, children's lifestyle behaviours were interrelated and associated with weight status. Cross-sectional analysis confirmed small, direct associations between longer hours of maternal employment and child weight at age 4-5 years, but not with child's weight measured two years later. In both the cross-sectional and prospective analyses, the children of mothers who worked part-time watched less television and were less likely to be overweight than children of mothers who were not employed or who worked full-time. While associations were small, they remained significant after adjustment for maternal weight, household income and other factors. The combination of direct and indirect relationships between mothers' work hours and the weight status of their young children provides additional support to calls for family-friendly work policies as an important means for promoting healthy family lifestyles and early childhood wellbeing.
对儿童肥胖症日益普遍的担忧引起了人们对可能导致不健康体重的个体生活方式行为的关注。更远端的预测因素，如母亲的就业情况，也可能与此有关，因为工作的母亲花在监督孩子日常活动上的时间较少。本研究使用澳大利亚儿童纵向研究的两波数据，调查了母亲的有偿工作时间是否会影响幼儿的看电视、吃零食和体育活动习惯，以及这些生活方式行为是否会影响 4-5 岁和 6-7 岁儿童的体重。在这两个年龄阶段，儿童的生活方式行为是相互关联的，与体重状况有关。横断面分析证实，母亲就业时间较长与 4-5 岁儿童的体重有小而直接的关联，但与两年后儿童的体重无关。在横断面和前瞻性分析中，与母亲未就业或全职工作的儿童相比，母亲从事兼职工作的儿童看电视的时间较少，超重的可能性较小。虽然关联较小，但在调整了母亲体重、家庭收入和其他因素后，这些关联仍然显著。母亲工作时间与幼儿体重状况之间的直接和间接关系的结合，为呼吁制定对家庭友好的工作政策提供了更多支持，这是促进健康家庭生活方式和儿童早期福祉的重要手段。
