A new report has found that children of mothers who work are more likely to be overweight. The study says that the more the mother works, the heavier their children could be. The research is from the Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the USA. It looked at data on 990 children related to the number of hours mothers worked and the BMI (Body Mass Index) of their children. The children lived in ten different cities across the USA. Lead researcher Dr. Taryn Morrissey wrote that for every 5.3-month period the mother was employed, her child had a slight increase in BMI over the expected normal weight gain for a child in that age group. She said: "For a child of average height, this is equivalent to a gain in weight of nearly one pound [0.45kg] every five months.”
一份新的報告發(fā)現(xiàn)職場母親的孩子更有可能超重。研究稱,母親工作越多,他們的孩子就會越重。研究來自美國兒童衛(wèi)生與人類發(fā)展研究所。他們查看了990名兒童和他們的母親工作時長,以及孩子的BMI。這些孩子居住在美國十個不同的城市。首席研究人員Taryn Morrissey醫(yī)生寫道,母親被雇傭每5.3個月的時間,孩子的BMI值就會比該年齡段正常體重出現(xiàn)輕微的增加。她說:“對于一個平均身高的孩子來說,這相當于每五個月體重增加近1磅(0.45千克)。”
More than 70 per cent of American mothers with young children work. Dr. Morrissey stated she did not want working mothers to be alarmed at the research, saying: “This is not a reason for moms to feel guilty. It’s not maternal employment per se that's the issue. It's an underlying environmental factor that leads to this association." She did not elaborate and say what these factors might be. One for older children could be that they eat too much junk food. Kids in grades five and six are more likely to choose what they eat and therefore have more fast food. One surprising finding in the research was that there was no link between weight gain and changes in the level of physical activity of children whose mothers worked and those whose mothers stayed at home.
超過70%的有幼童的美國母親要工作。Morrissey醫(yī)生說,她并不是希望這份研究引起職場母親擔心,“這不是媽媽們感到愧疚的理由。本質(zhì)的問題不是母親就業(yè)。導致兩者之間有所關(guān)聯(lián)的是潛在的環(huán)境因素。她沒有詳盡說明具體的是什么因素。對于年齡較大的孩子來說,一個原因是吃了太多垃圾食品。五年級和六年級的孩子更有可能選擇自己吃什么,因此吃了太多快餐。這項研究一個出人意料的發(fā)現(xiàn)是,體重增加和孩子的體育活動水平跟母親工作還是在家并無聯(lián)系。”