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Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access published online on April 10, 2008
Journal of Pediatric Psychology, doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsn037
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Influences on Child Eating and Weight Development from a Behavioral Genetics Perspective

Tanja V. E. Kral, PhD1 and Myles S. Faith, PhD1,2

1University of Pennsylvania and 2The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

All correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Tanja V. E. Kral, PhD, Center for Weight and Eating Disorders, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 3535 Market Street – 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. E-mail: tkral{at}mail.med.upenn.edu


  Abstract

Childhood obesity is a strong risk factor for associated comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and orthopedic abnormalities in youth and its increasing incidents thus represents a major public health concern. The following review provides evidence for a familial association between parental and child weight status, eating behaviors, and food preferences. It further draws the link between environmental influences, such as parent feeding practices, and the development of child eating behaviors and thereby elucidates how genetic and nongenetic influences can contribute to the familial transmission of obesity. We use eating in the absence of hunger, an eating trait which refers to children's susceptibility to eating in response to the presence of palatable foods in the absence of hunger, as an example to illustrate these associations. The review concludes with an outlook on possibilities for future research efforts in the field.

Key words: behavior genetics; childhood obesity; eating in the absence of hunger; eating traits.

Received December 13, 2007; revision received March 19, 2008; accepted March 19, 2008


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