Conceptualizing Family Influences on Children’s Energy Balance-Related Behaviors: Levels of Interacting Family Environmental Subsystems (The LIFES Framework)

Christina Y.N. Niermann, Sanne M.P.L. Gerards and Stef P.J. Kremers
Additional contact information
Christina Y.N. Niermann: Department of Sport Science, University of Konstanz, P.O. Box 30, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
Sanne M.P.L. Gerards: Department of Health Promotion, NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
Stef P.J. Kremers: Department of Health Promotion, NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-21

Abstract: Healthy or unhealthy behavioral patterns develop and are maintained in a family context. The importance of the family environment for children’s and adolescents’ energy balance-related behaviors (EBRBs) has been shown previously. However, the way different family environmental factors are interrelated and interact with personal factors (e.g., motivation) are not well understood. Furthermore, the majority of studies have focused on the parent-child subsystem. However, there are family-level socialization dynamics that affect the development of a healthy lifestyle beyond the impact of parenting behaviors. The current paper aims to synthesize theoretical and empirical literature on different types of family influences. The Levels of Interacting Family Environmental Subsystems (LIFES) framework incorporates family influences on three levels (immediate, proximal, distal) and of three subsystems (individual, parent-child, family), relates them to each other and postulates potential paths of influence on children’s EBRBs. Several studies examining specific sections of the framework provide empirical support for LIFES’ propositions. Future studies should place their research in the context of the interrelationship of different family environmental influences. A better understanding of the interrelated influences would enhance the understanding of the development and maintenance of overweight and obesity among children and is crucial for the development of effective interventions.

Keywords: health behavior; physical activity; eating behavior; sedentary behavior; family environment; family systems; parents; parental behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2714/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2714/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:12:p:2714-:d:187084

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().