Effects of Junk Food on School Age Children

Running head: EVALUATING SCIENTIFIC MERIT
Effects of Junk Food on School Age Children
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Introduction
Effects of Junk Food on School Age Children
The term “Junk food” refers the tasty and processed consumables that have highly
negative impact on human health condition. The consumption of carbonated beverages and
high carbohydrate containing foods is a major cause of increasing chronic health issues such
as obesity, diabetes, cardiac problems and other. The practice of regular consumption of these
unhealthy foods has significant psychological consequences as well that trigger the world
population at the very early stage of their social and intellectual development.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to explore the researches and studies regarding the
socio-psychological factors behind the tendency of junk food consumption within the school
children to find out future research scopes. This report will examine and analyse the research
methods used by chosen articles while finding the limitations of the study. The proposed or
used theories will be also be interpreted from the chosen studies considering the significance
of the components of scientific merits.
Synthesis
Significance of the research
The core values and ethics about lifestyle that contains social attributes and even
regular food consumption develop at the age of adulation considerably. Several academic and
professional primary studies have clearly have shown that 88% of US population is highly
obsessed with consuming fast foods or junk foods. The percentage is even higher in the
adulations and school going children. Therefore, it can be clearly understood that the healthy

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practice and perspective of wellbeing in the adulation period has huge impact on their future
lifestyle and food consumption practice. This research will focus on those secondary
resources that help to develop more socio-psychological theories regarding junk food
consumption at the age of 10 to 19. Finding out most appropriate research method to
investigate the psychological attributes will help to explore the topic at further level while
examining the significance of future research. It will allow more in-depth researches to take
most appropriate research technique for investigating the topic while aiming to change the
current unhealthy situation.
Chosen Articles
The chosen research papers and reports are very significant study materials to
understand on only the significance of the topic, but also to analyse and examining the
underlying psychological components of adulations. Studies such as Vardanjani et al.
(2015), Killion (2019) and Rausch (2013) discussed about the attitude of the primary school
students and their performance based on their food consumption practice. Some of them, like
Svokos (2014), conducted literature review in a systematic research format regarding the
poor nutrition of school-age children while demonstrating the impacts. Through these papers,
the significance of balanced diet and dependence of brain capacity are also demonstrated.
Paper like Lobstein (2015) and Smith and Richards (2018) focused on primary research to
examine the association of consumption of carbonated beverages, caffeine and junk food with
the academic attainment and improvement of school students. These examinations also
include the overweight and obesity of In USA irrespective of the income level and
geographical position on the globe. Datar and Nicosia (2012), conducted a study on school
children to estimate the effects of Junk Food and the impact on BMI of the children.
Throughout these studies and discussions, the each and individual component of physical and

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intellectual ability of the school children and the impacts of junk unhealthy food consumption
has been explored, examined and evaluated.
Limitations and Evaluations
Limitations in these studies
All the chosen articles are very valuable and informative, whereas there are some
research designs that have been proven more effective than others. Every article has its own
limitations considering their research design. However, there are some major limitations,
which have been found less affective and viable. Research like Vardanjani et al. (2015), is
limited by focusing only on the female students. This demographical biased design bound the
research to present more feasible results. On the other hand, conducting a systematic review
or literature review like Vardanjani et al. (2015), Killion (2019) and Rausch (2013) lacks the
primary evidence of current situation. It limits the tangibility in spite of examining various
psychological components of adulations. Datar and Nicosia (2012), utilised the primary
research while focusing mainly on the impact on physical ability and BMI, which caused
significant limitation.
Significance of Future research
From above methodological analysis it has been found that most of the researches
uses secondary data collection while using either interpretivist or empirical approach. Very
few studies are conducted using the primary data collection on the psychological factors
behind junk food consumption and impact of the food consumption on the mental ability of
the school students. Therefore, further research in this context is required while focusing
more on the positivist and imperative research design. Research design is a crucial factor that
emphasise the rationale and significance of the research (Cicchetti, 2016). Therefore,
depending on the research context the research design should be developed. In this case, the