Washington, June 10: A study has found that lenient fathers are more likely to have an impact on their children''s obesity than mothers would.

A Texas AgriLife Research study said a father''s use of restaurants and his perceptions of family meals carry more weight than a mother''s.

"Dads who think that dinner time is a special family time certainly do not see a fast-food restaurant as an appropriate place for that special family time, so this means that his kids are spending less time in those places," Dr. Alex McIntosh, AgriLife Research sociologist.

"Dads who have no trouble eating food in a fast-food restaurant are going to be more likely to have kids who do so," McIntosh explained.

The study began as a 15-month look at parents'' use of time and how that impacted meal choices.

It aimed at the difference between fast food and full-service restaurants because numerous studies have shown a correlation between fast-food consumption and weight gain.

"We had been analysing the data for a long time when it occurred to us that because the kids had done such a great job in their time diaries that we would actually be able to distinguish between a meal at a fast-food restaurant versus a meal at a full-service restaurant," McIntosh noted.

"And somewhat to our surprise, it was father''s time spent at fast-food restaurants - not mother''s time spent there - that was associated with kids'' time spent in a fast-food place," McIntosh said.

McIntosh said the message to fathers should be that they have some responsibility just like mothers to raise healthy, well-adjusted children. Also, fathers need to know more about nutritional content of fast food.

The only instances of mothers being more lax on the use of fast-food restaurants are those who are neglectful and those who are highly committed to their work, McIntosh said.

"So mothers are not unimportant when it comes to eating out choices, but in terms of statistical findings, the father findings are stronger," he said.

"Traditionally academics have blamed mothers for everything that goes wrong with children, especially when it comes to food.

"But I think it''s pretty clear that fathers have a substantial influence over what children are eating. And if that''s the case, then they need to be the target of education just like mothers," he added.

The study has been published in The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour. (ANI)