Parental working hours and the rising prevalence of obesity over time: a cross-cohort analysis

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Background

This project aimed to investigate how changes in parental employment have affected childhood weight and if/how this effect has been changing over the last five decades. The project was part of the Cross Cohort Research Programme.

Research details

Project title	Parental working hours and the rising prevalence of obesity over time: a cross-cohort analysis
Project lead	Emla Fitzsimons
Themes	Employment, income and wealth Family and social networks Physical health
Dates	1 October 2016 – December 2018
Funder	ESRC
Summary	The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has soared in recent decades. Over the same period, the typical household has seen overall increases in parental working hours. This project aimed to investigate how changes in parental employment have affected childhood weight and if/how this effect has been changing over the last five decades. The project used data from three birth cohort studies spanning the past five decades: the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS), the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) and the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). It used a mixture of modelling to estimate whether there is a causal relationship between parental employment and childhood obesity, and to quantify its magnitude. There are several potential policy implications of this research. One is that programmes to tackle the growing incidence of childhood overweight, such as access to healthier foods and physical exercise, could be better tailored to meet the demands of working parents. A second is that preschool childcare settings, which are used by a growing number of families for extended periods each day, may be an increasingly important target for promoting early healthy behaviours.

Outputs

News

Mothers are not to blame for our childhood obesity crisis

1 October 2016 25 March 2019 The number of obese children and teenagers across the world has increased tenfold over the past four decades and it is estimated that about one in four 14-year-olds in the UK is either overweight or obese.

News

Children’s BMI tends to be higher in homes where both parents work, new study finds

1 October 2016 11 March 2019 Children in homes where both parents are employed are more likely to be overweight compared to those from families where mothers stay at home.

Featured scientific publications

Fitzsimons E, Pongiglione B. (2018)

The impact of maternal employment on children's weight: Evidence from the UK

SSM - Population Health, Volume 7

Read the full paper

Fitzsimons E, Pongiglione B. (2017)

Prevalence and trends of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence

CLS working paper 2017/16. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies

Read the full paper

Researchers

Emla Fitzsimons Professor of Economics and Director of the Millennium Cohort Study

Full UCL profile

Phone: 020 7331 5129
Email: E.Fitzsimons@ucl.ac.uk

Emla is the Director of the UK Millennium Cohort Study, a longitudinal birth cohort study following children born at the turn of the new century. Her research is focused on the development of human capital throughout the life course, and in particular how experiences and circumstances in early life and childhood affect causally the acquisition of skills later on.

Ludovica Gambaro Marie Skodowska-Curie Fellow, DIW Berlin

Email: l.gambaro@ucl.ac.uk

Ludovica worked in CLS from 2013 to 2016, mainly on the Millennium Cohort Study and she continues to collaborate with researchers in CLS.

Her main areas of interest are inequalities in child development, early childhood education and care services, residential mobility.

Praveetha Patalay Professor of Population Health and Wellbeing

Full UCL profile

Phone: 020 7612 6051
Email: p.patalay@ucl.ac.uk

Praveetha’s main areas of research interest relate to investigating the development and antecedents of mental health (both ill-health and wellbeing) and their consequences through the lifecourse.

Benedetta Pongiglione Research Associate

Benedetta worked as a Research Associate for CLS from 2016-2018. During her time here, she undertook methodological research on the different British cohort studies and investigated the determinants of healthy behaviours and lifestyles, and the intergenerational transmission of social capital and economic status.

Benedetta has a PhD in epidemiology and population health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her research interests include socio-economic inequalities in health, and inequalities in trajectories of healthy ageing. She now works at Bocconi University.