Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between obesity in five-year-old children and 1) their eating behavior, 2) feeding schedule and temperament in infancy, and 3) rearing attitudes of mothers. Mothers of 510 children answered questionnaires about children's eating behavior and rearing attitudes of mothers. We analyzed obesity from two points, the degree of obesity and two types of obesity, that is the “stable type” and the “progressive type”. The results suggested that the degree of obesity was related to the children's desire for eating, temperament in infancy. Concerning the type of obesity, the “progressive type” children had high accessibility toward foods. Further, the mothers of the “progressive type” girls tended to have more negative behavioral characteristics than the mothers of the “stable type” children. Thus, it is indicated that the characteristics of the degree of obesity were different from those of the type of obesiy.
