A novel hypothesis on the relationship between maternal education and obesity in children; the mediating role of maternal and child self-control—ABIS a population-based cohort study

We conclude that maternal self-control and child self-control may mediate most of the effect of low maternal education on BMI/obesity at age 19. The central role of self-control in health inequality, especially for the persistence of health inequalities in the welfare state, may have important implications and should be included when theories of health inequalities are constructed. However, future studies are needed to test the hypothesis described in this paper using additional measures of self-control and executive functions.