​Healthy family dynamics key to fighting obesity in kids, says researcher

Public health campaigns encouraging families to be active with their children, or eat more meals together won't do much good if those family bonds need work, an expert in obesity prevention in kids and teens says.

That can make fighting the "obesity epidemic" easier for high-functioning families, and may mean health professionals need to re-think strategies to get people focused on their health, associate professor in family relations and applied nutrition at the University of Guelph Jess Haines said. 

• Canadian children and teens leaner than decade ago

Her new research, published in the Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, studied 6,300 young women and men between the ages of 14 and 24. 

"We wanted to look at the general family environment, how well the family functions, how well the parent and child gets along," and then look at how that is associated with their diet, exercise and weight, Haines said. 

Healthy relationships, healthy kids

She said they found girls were more likely to be healthier when they had a strong relationship with either parent. For boys, a strong relationship their father was more important than the mother. 

For both, the take-away is the same: Healthy relationships often mean healthy kids.

"We, as health researchers, often give a lot of advice around 'be active with your kids' and 'have more family meals.' But it's very possible that, depending on what else is going on, that working on the relationship would be more important than just telling people to do these things."

"Maybe instead we should be saying, 'How do we help you get to a better place?' before we heap on other advice about other behaviours," Haines said.