Effects of Junk Food on School Age Children: A Literature Review

This literature review analyzes the effects of junk food on school age children from a psychological and retail food chain perspective. The research problem leads to the formation of research questions that help to understand the mindset and opinion behind the consumption of junk food and its impact on children's health.

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
The aim of the paper is to review two primary resources to analyse the topic of the
effects of junk food on the school age children. The paper has been divided into multiple parts.
The first part deals with the literature review of the two articles with a clear analysis the same
and the next part talks about the summary of the issue with a conclusion at the end.
Discussion
Sugar-sweetened beverage attitudes and consumption during the first 1000 days of
life. American Journal of Public Health, 108(12), 1659-1665.
The first article taken is "Sugar-sweetened beverage attitude and consumption during the
first 1000 days of life" (Baidal et al., 2018). This article contains the objectives of the study, the
methodology used, their implications and results, conclusion and the relevance of the topic in the
current scenario. It provides a statistical analysis of the same by drawing from interviews, survey
and other quantitative research methods (Baidal et al., 2018). The research topic as chosen by the
author is the impact of junk foods and its implications in obesity for the first 1000 days of life.
The impact of junk food on the school going children has been a debated topic in the academic
field for long. The growing tendency of the new generation of school children towards the
readymade junk foods and beverages have been increasing at a faster rate (Baidal et al., 2018).
This leads to multiple health issues like issues related to the heart. Digestion issues, diabetes,
kidney issue, growth-related issues among children and most importantly the issue of obesity
(Baidal et al., 2018).

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According to data. It has been estimated that the average consumption of junk foods
among the children of the schools in U. S is 12.4% of the total calorie intake in a single day
(Baidal et al., 2018). According to the data published by the National Center for Health
Statistics, over 17% of the total children and adolescents in U. S are currently obese.
The impact of the study of junk food on the health issues of the children is essential from
the psychological perspective is to understand the psychology and mindset of the children for
this higher consumption of the junk foods and to analyze the factors as to what drives these new
generation of children towards this junk foods more than ever in this century. It is to understand
the issue from a different perspective of psychology to provide an alternative view to junk food
consumption. The research problem as indicated by the author is that the problem of childhood
obesity is linked to the study of psychology of the parents (Baidal et al., 2018). It is the negative
attitude of the parents towards the intake of sugar-sweetened beverage and junk foods during the
time of pregnancy and the infancy of their child what creates the habit of higher consumption of
these foods among these children (Baidal et al., 2018). The rationale of the author used in
identifying the issue is the lack of research conducted in this field. The problem statement is used
in forming the research questions. The psychological framework is used as the gap in the
literature, and the research questions are chosen to elaborate the research problem. The
researchers have raised questions like “why do parent chose junk food’? Its argued by the author
that the there have been multiple types of research conducted before which has highlighted the
issue of higher sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among the adults , however there are
very few researches available for the understanding of the same issue among the children and the
mothers during their pregnancy (Baidal et al., 2018). This research tries to analyse the issue of
the habit of junk food consumption is directly linked to the habit of the parents and their health

3LITERATURE REVIEW
practices, and it is, solely the habit developed by the children. However what is important to note
that the children who are developing such habits are vulnerable to multiple health hazards and it
directly impacted their health. The articles used the quantitative research methods for conducting
the research and the research questions taken up by the researches helps to find out the desired
outcome by conducting the research over large number of issue by taking the sample size of a
large number of 394 Nutrition program for women and children (Baidal et al., 2018). This helps
provide the understanding of junk food consumption among school going children by drawing
inferences from the parental attitudes. The article has used multiple primary and secondary
sources to substantiate the argument however it is mostly conducted through the interviews taken
from multiple sources.
This article will positively contribute to the understanding of the correlation of junk food
habit of the children and the attitude of their parents in promoting or restricting such issues. This
is primary research conducted on this field that will help to provide multiple data relating to the
health issues of the children by relating it to the health of their parents and especially their
mother.
Examining community and consumer food environments for children: An urban-
suburban-rural comparison in southwestern Ontario. Social Science & Medicine, 209, 33
The second article chosen for the paper is “Examining community and consumer food
environments for children: An urban-suburban rural comparison in Southwestern Ontario”
(DuBreck et al., 2018). The author aims to study the food environment for the children and their
possible impact on the health issues globally by drawing inferences from the case studies of
Ontario based rural and urban divide. The purpose of the literature review of this academic

4LITERATURE REVIEW
resource is to find out the issue of an alternative understanding of the effects of junk foods on
children from the perspective of the managers and owners of these local restaurants (DuBreck et
al., 2018). This article contains the following parts, the introduction of the topic, literature
review, purpose of the study, research methodology and results (DuBreck et al., 2018). This
included the statistical representation of the same through multiple case studies and the research
methodology used here is qualitative which conducts research based on the menu assessment
tool for the children to understand the dietary practices of the children across the urban and rural
belts (DuBreck et al., 2018). The study is focused on the evaluation of the retail food
environment especially for the school going children relating it to their socioeconomic
background. It is argued that retail food chain across the rural and urban belts works as the buffer
for the private and private schools which provides the children with the opportunity to consume
the junk foods and this is done by conducting the qualitative analysis of the interviews of the
manager’s and owners of these retail food chains (DuBreck et al., 2018). The finding of the
research explains that the density of such JFO (junk food opportunities) is increasing in number
and this has a direct correlation with the heath of the school going children. The researcher has
used this opportunity to find out the link between urbanicity and children’s food environment in
their poor health. The problem statement put forward by the author is that there is less research
conducted in the field of impact of the neighbourhood retail food chains and the increasing
consumption of the junk food among the children (DuBreck et al., 2018). Unlike the last article
which discusses the psychological understanding of the parental negative attitude in the growing
consumption of junk foods among the children, this article focuses upon the retail shops and their
role in increasing junk food consumption among the children. This article highlights that the
effects of junk food on the school children are indeed important to consider, however, what is are

5LITERATURE REVIEW
important here is to understand the source of availability and accessibility to such food products
(DuBreck et al., 2018). The author takes into account the issue depending upon the sources, and
it is the argument put forward by the author that it is more important to reconsider the issue from
a different perspective. It is also argued by the author that the socioeconomic distress and the
need for higher calories forces people to adapt to such quick fix (DuBreck et al., 2018).
However, the health impact of the issue is being ignored on the process. the rationale as
identified by the author is that there are fewer researches conducted on the effects of junk food
however it is not well known whether it is the socioeconomic factors are equally responsible for
certain food choices of these children. It is argued that irrespective of the presence of better
economic background, the choices of food are sometimes determined by the presence of junk
retail food shops. It is also argued by the author that the research will be focusing on the issue of
the reason for opening this network buffers (DuBreck et al., 2018). The research questions as
adopted by the authors are focused on finding the data about the time send by these school
children to find out the rationale behind opening up these many outlets. The problem statement
and the research questions have been raised to find further information from the stakeholders.
The research questions have been raised like "what are the reasons behind installing good retail
chains in places nearer to the schools". These questions are designed to find out the
psychological analysis behind setting up junk food retail shops. The strength of the article is the
issue it has raised where the author is highlighting the issue of junk food and the health of
children from the perspectives of the owners and managers of the retailers. This article uses the
qualitative data research method by studying the index and data of the menu assessment of these
school kids (DuBreck et al., 2018). The important question as to why this is important to

6LITERATURE REVIEW
understand the issue from the psychological perspective is to find an alternative perspective of
the operator of retail shops in offering junk foods to the school children.
This article will make a positive contribution in building knowledge about the increasing
statistics for the junk food opportunities retail shops and correlation between the health of the
children and these outlets. This research is also helpful for formulating policies relating to the
public health of the children from the ill effects of junk food and beverages. This will become
important for implementing policies for limiting the number of JFO near the school areas.
Moreover, this will provide an alternative perspective on the issue of health issues of children
and the problem of junk food.
Summary of the issue
According to Hemmingsson (2018), the socioeconomic factors are a major contributor in
consumption of junk foods among the children and the how this problem leads to the health risks
like obesity and cardiac diseases among the children. The author has tried to use the
psychological background of the issue which has not yet been researched to find out the
alternative perspective of the topic chosen for the research. The above mentioned articles have
largely focused on the issue of the habit of junk food among school children from the
psychological perspective. It is considered that before considering the health effects of junk
foods, it is important to consider the sources of such problem In another study, it is found that the
ban of sale of junk food across the areas of schools can actually have a positive health impact of
the children and there is a need to implement the same for the states where there are the highest
number of junk food consumption among the children (Leonard 2017). Hence, the research
questions raised here are centred around the theme of the psychological issues of multiple

7LITERATURE REVIEW
stakeholders.It is to be considered that the total number of obesity affected patients and most
children have doubled in the last few years, starting from the 1960s, It has gone up from 17% to
35% which is a clear reflection of higher junk food consumption among the new generation of
children and their growing preference for such food (Cobb et al., 2015). Hence, it is important to
note that the gap in literature is used as the foundation for forming the research questions and it
is also important to realize the understanding the problem statement is the key to formulate the
research questions.
Conclusion
This paper was aimed at analyzing how the research problem leads to the formation of
the research questions. What can be derived from the above article is that researchers have used
the problem to formulate research questions for doing further research on the topic of effects of
junk food on the school age children. This is to be considered that the through the usage of the
problem statement of the research which is the psychological background of the parents and the
retail food chain, the researcher have tries to formulate direct research question that would help
to understand the mindset and opinion behind the consumption of the junk food and how it will
help to understand their impact on the children. This has been analysed from two diverse
perspectives giving it a holistic understanding of the issue. It can be concluded that there have
been multiple pieces of research conducted on the field of children health and the growing
concern for junk foods; however, there are multiple other perspectives required to understand to
issue in a complete manner.

8LITERATURE REVIEW
References and bibliography
Baidal, Jennifer A Woo,M.D., M.P.H., Morel, K., M.S., Nichols, K., B.A., Elbel, E., M.D.,
Charles, N., M.P.H., Goldsmith, J., PhD., . . . Taveras, Elsie,M.D., M.P.H. (2018). Sugar-
sweetened beverage attitudes and consumption during the first 1000 days of
life. American Journal of Public Health, 108(12), 1659-1665.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.library.capella.edu/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304691
Cobb, L. K., Appel, L. J., Franco, M., Jones‐Smith, J. C., Nur, A., & Anderson, C. A. (2015).
The relationship of the local food environment with obesity: a systematic review of
methods, study quality, and results. Obesity, 23(7), 1331-1344.
DuBreck, C. M., Sadler, R. C., Arku, G., & Gilliland, J. A. (2018). Examining community and
consumer food environments for children: An urban-suburban-rural comparison in
southwestern Ontario. Social Science & Medicine, 209, 33. Retrieved from
http://library.capella.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.proquest.com
%2Fdocview%2F2100879415%3Faccoun
Hemmingsson, E. (2018). Early childhood obesity risk factors: socioeconomic adversity, family
dysfunction, offspring distress, and junk food self-medication. Current obesity reports, 7,
204-209.
Leonard, P. S. (2017). Do school junk food bans improve student health? Evidence from
Canada. Canadian Public Policy, 43(2), 105-119.
Ludwig, D. S. (2018). Epidemic childhood obesity: Not yet the end of the beginning. Pediatrics,
e20174078.

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Palmer, S. (2018). What is a toxic childhood?. In Childhood, Well-Being and a Therapeutic
Ethos (pp. 57-74). Routledge.
Sahoo, K., Sahoo, B., Choudhury, A. K., Sofi, N. Y., Kumar, R., & Bhadoria, A. S. (2015).
Childhood obesity: causes and consequences. Journal of family medicine and primary care, 4(2),
187.