Here's the study if you want to check it out:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827318300557#bib52 …
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Basically, the researchers looked at a large group of children that they measured over time, and used a statistical model to see how much various things were related to the kids' risk of gaining weight
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They found that there was a relatively small increase in BMI that was statistically significantly associated with mothers working, which was even more pronounced for single mums
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So, firstly, the figures that everyone are reporting are TOTAL NONSENSE. The paper did not directly calculate relative risk, so the "25% increased risk" reported everywhere is simply wrongpic.twitter.com/fk6d8s7bvk
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The exact findings are here. There was an increase of 0.243 standard deviations in BMI of the children of single mothers who worked That is not even vaguely relatable to the "25% increased risk" figure reportedpic.twitter.com/LWtPQ2IWiG
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Since this is (presumably) the standardized coefficient for the linear regression of their model, it's actually pretty much impossible to relate this back to a specific increase in risk for maternal employment
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If you take another gander at their table of results, you'll notice that it wasn't even the biggest predictor of BMI, which is reserved for ethnicity with age coming in a close secondpic.twitter.com/0lhFMw2HlI
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It's also worth noting that single mothers were, on the whole, much less well-off both physically, mentally, and economically, than mothers with a partnerpic.twitter.com/UHa7PK4CMj
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They were more likely to be depressed, less well-educated, had poorer health, and did worse on a whole range of factors Probably not a surprise to most single mumspic.twitter.com/sEGNe0YamL
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What this means is that there's a high likelihood that the results - that single mothers who work have kids with higher BMI - are down to confounding factors
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What I mean by that is that it's possible that the fact that these mums work is causing kids to be fat Possible, but unlikely What's also possible - and, in my opinion, far more likely - is that there are unknown factors causing both issues
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Maybe women with abusive partners are more likely to be single and, because of the abuse, have heavier kids Maybe, as the research itself implies, racism plays a big part in both who becomes a single mother and which children have a high BMI
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Which brings us to what the researchers themselves thought of their study Did they blame it all on single mums? In a word: nopic.twitter.com/vkvstUsMKd
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What the researchers actually said is that it's likely that mums who work have less time to spend with their kids This ~may~ increase the risk of obesity The answer? FATHERSpic.twitter.com/0Fjrwra5N0
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I mean, basic stuff right? Mothers are working more I WONDER WHO COULD HELP THEM OUT WITH THE KIDS?????pic.twitter.com/vHa0gSiUOO
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But let's go back to the results for a second. We can blame ~at most~ an 0.243 standard deviation increase on SINGLE working mums A bit less on mums working overall That's not even vaguely close to "causing" the obesity epidemic
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So we have a small increase in a vague metric relating to obesity that may or may not be due to mums working. Even if it is, the problem can probably be fixed by dads doing their fair share Sounds a bit less ridiculous than "SINGLE MUMS CAUSE ALL OBESITY IN CHILDREN"
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I'm unconvinced that mums working is the driver behind this obesity increase Much more likely that it's a complex interplay between social and environmental factors like many of these issues
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But even if that's not the case - even if a mum going to work DOES make their child more likely to gain weight - it's still atrocious nonsense to blame mums for the problem It takes two to make a child, after all* *(rare exceptions exist)
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Blog is up on this:https://medium.com/@gidmk/working-mothers-dont-make-children-obese-85325d462274 …
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End of conversation
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