Parenting Style Trickles Down to Child's Diet

Parents' general approach to raising their children is often apparent in how they manage their kids' diets -- suggesting that efforts to control childhood obesity need to consider family dynamics, according to researchers.

In a study of 239 parents of first-grade children, researchers found that parents who were strict in general also tended to have an "authoritarian" approach to their children's eating -- banning certain foods, for instance, or using pressure to get them to eat fruits and vegetables. Similarly, parents who were generally "permissive" in what they let their children eat tended to have similar parenting styles.