Parents and teachers are important role models for healthy lifestyles in children, and new research presented at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity shows that parents have considerable influence on their daughters' activity patterns.

The parents of 192 girls were interviewed twice (when their daughters were 5 and 7 years old) and classified as either having above average energy and fat intake with below average physical activity or as having below average energy and fat intake with above average physical activity. Girls of parents who ate more calories and fat and exercised less had higher body mass indexes and percentages of body fat.

A separate study by the same researchers evaluated the parents' role in children's activity level. A group of 9-year-old girls were asked about their preferences for physical activity, and parents provided information about the type of support they provided to their child's activities, such as driving them to and from games and events. Girls whose fathers were active and provided support were more active than girls whose fathers did not. However, the activity patterns of mothers did not seem to affect the activity levels of the girls.