新奇事件簿 职场妈妈的孩子更可能肥胖（在线收听）

A new report has found that children of mothers who work are more likely to be overweight. The study says that the more the mother works, the heavier their children could be. The research is from the Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the USA. It looked at data on 990 children related to the number of hours mothers worked and the BMI (Body Mass Index) of their children. The children lived in ten different cities across the USA. Lead researcher Dr. Taryn Morrissey wrote that for every 5.3-month period the mother was employed, her child had a slight increase in BMI over the expected normal weight gain for a child in that age group. She said: "For a child of average height, this is equivalent to a gain in weight of nearly one pound [0.45kg] every five months.”

一份新的报告发现职场母亲的孩子更有可能超重。研究称，母亲工作越多，他们的孩子就会越重。研究来自美国儿童卫生与人类发展研究所。他们查看了990名儿童和他们的母亲工作时长，以及孩子的BMI。这些孩子居住在美国十个不同的城市。首席研究人员Taryn Morrissey医生写道，母亲被雇佣每5.3个月的时间，孩子的BMI值就会比该年龄段正常体重出现轻微的增加。她说：“对于一个平均身高的孩子来说，这相当于每五个月体重增加近1磅（0.45千克）。”

More than 70 per cent of American mothers with young children work. Dr. Morrissey stated she did not want working mothers to be alarmed at the research, saying: “This is not a reason for moms to feel guilty. It’s not maternal employment per se that's the issue. It's an underlying environmental factor that leads to this association." She did not elaborate and say what these factors might be. One for older children could be that they eat too much junk food. Kids in grades five and six are more likely to choose what they eat and therefore have more fast food. One surprising finding in the research was that there was no link between weight gain and changes in the level of physical activity of children whose mothers worked and those whose mothers stayed at home.

超过70%的有幼童的美国母亲要工作。Morrissey医生说，她并不是希望这份研究引起职场母亲担心，“这不是妈妈们感到愧疚的理由。本质的问题不是母亲就业。导致两者之间有所关联的是潜在的环境因素。她没有详尽说明具体的是什么因素。对于年龄较大的孩子来说，一个原因是吃了太多垃圾食品。五年级和六年级的孩子更有可能选择自己吃什么，因此吃了太多快餐。这项研究一个出人意料的发现是，体重增加和孩子的体育活动水平跟母亲工作还是在家并无联系。”