Search

Objective:In general, treatment of childhood obesity focuses on treating the obese children. The results of child-directed treatments are disappointing in the long run. In the current study, it is tested whether a treatment aimed solely at obese children's parents results in positive effects on the children's weight status. In addition, potential predictors of treatment success are identified.Methods:The parents of 98 overweight or obese children (aged 7-13 years) were randomly assigned to either the cognitive-behavioural group treatment (eight sessions) or the waiting-list control group.Results:With respect to child body mass index (BMI) percentile, the parents' treatment was successful in reducing overweight from pretreatment to posttreatment: BMI percentile decreased significantly by 2.4% in the treatment group, whereas there was no change in the waiting-list control group. There was no significant relapse at follow-up (3 months). Child BMI percentile did not decrease in the waiting-list control group. In addition, significant main effects of time were found for both groups with respect to eating psychopathology (decrease), self-esteem (increase) and negative thoughts (decrease). Finally, parental BMI decreased significantly only in the treatment group. Four predictors were identified with respect to treatment success, namely, lower socioeconomic status, younger age of the child, higher parental attendance and lower BMI percentile of the child before treatment.Conclusions:The parents' treatment had significant effects on child and parent BMI. Long-term endurance of these positive effects needs to be studied. Striking are the positive effects of time in the waiting-list control group for some psychological outcome measures. Obviously, waiting for treatment already affects psychological processes (but not behaviour) in the children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obese children are often liable to weight-related teasing, and in earlier studies this childhood teasing has been found to predict body dissatisfaction. Cognitive theory postulates that negative experiences are the source of interpretation biases, implicating that weight-related teasing might make obese children vulnerable to shape- and weight-related interpretation biases. In the present study, it was tested whether young overweight children show interpretation biases related to body weight/shape and self-esteem. A Situation Interpretation Test (SIT) was used to find out whether overweight children (n = 20) interpret neutral and negative ambiguous situations more often in terms of their concerns about body weight/shape and self-esteem than healthy controls (n = 16). The data show that 8- to 12-year-old overweight children indeed show interpretation biases, that is, they were more likely to endorse negative appearance and self-esteem-related interpretations of a neutral or negative event than normal-weight children. Also, the perceived threat value of these events was higher in the overweight group. Interpretation biases like this might increase and maintain body dissatisfaction and psychological distress. It is therefore argued that the vulnerability to the development of an interpretation bias emphasises the need to use cognitive strategies that tackle these biases in the treatment of overweight children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]