Girls With Single Parents: Twice As Likely To Be Obese

Girls With Single Parents: Twice as Likely to Be Obese

But that’s where the strongest similarities ended. A dependency on prepackaged foods was one of the leading factors among obesity in both younger (between the ages of 5 and 11) and older (aged 12 to 17) boys. Meanwhile, girls of all ages were greatly affected by their parents’ marital status. Younger girls with single parents were more than twice as likely to be obese as girls living in two-parent households. And the older girls were three times more likely to suffer from a severe weight problem.

“We do not know why girls from single-parent households are more likely to be obese,” stated Peter O’Rourke, professor at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, in a press release. “More research is needed in this area.”

“The data would have the same results for kids in the United States, too,” Julie Upton, co-founder of Appetite for Health, tells Yahoo Beauty. “In fact, there are similar studies that have been conducted here that found the same things.”

For example, research conducted by medical investigators from California discovered that children from single-mother families — and especially children who were also without siblings — were at higher risk for obesity than children living with two parents and children with brothers and sister

With obesity, they need to take the socio-economic factors seriously. I believe they are more fat from probably the higher risk of stress and cortisol surges too from broken homes and economic despair and problems. Children do pick up on the stress of other wise well-intentioned but poor and divorced parents. There is also the higher quantity of prepared food, from working single mothers with very little time to cook.