Vol. 15 No. 3 (2026)
Full Research Articles

Investigating the relationship between family environments and children’s adoption of obesity-related behaviours in Italy

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  • Riccardo Borgia,
  • Giulia Tiboldo,
  • Elena Castellari
Riccardo Borgia
University of Bologna, Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Viale Fanin 50, Bologna, 40127, Italy
Giulia Tiboldo
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimento di Economia Agro-alimentare, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122, Piacenza, Italy
Elena Castellari
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimento di Economia Agro-alimentare, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122, Piacenza, Italy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/bae-18178

Published 2026-07-21

Keywords

  • children,
  • obesity-related behaviors,
  • family ennvironment,
  • parental model

How to Cite

Borgia, R., Tiboldo, G., & Castellari, E. (2026). Investigating the relationship between family environments and children’s adoption of obesity-related behaviours in Italy. Bio-Based and Applied Economics, 15(3), 43–54. https://doi.org/10.36253/bae-18178

Copyright (c) 2026 Riccardo Borgia, Giulia Tiboldo, Elena Castellari

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

This study investigates the association between family-environment and children’s adoption of four obesity-related behaviours: regular physical activity, adequate fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption, having an adequate breakfast and daily snack consumption. We perform a cross-sectional analysis using a nationally representative sample of Italian households with children (45,333 children from 30,228 households) collected by ISTAT over the period 2013-2023. Two sets of logit models are estimated to investigate the relationship between children’s adoption of the four behaviours under analysis and household characteristics (household models), as well as paternal and maternal habits (parental models). Our results show a statistically significant correlation exists between the adoption of obesity-related behaviours in adults and children within the same household. Moreover, this relationship is found to be stronger for relatively unhealthy behaviours (e.g., snacking) than for healthy ones (e.g., FV consumption) and when maternal behaviour is accounted for. 

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