University Psychology Essay: Childhood Obesity, Causes, and Prevention

This psychology essay delves into the critical issue of childhood obesity, examining its prevalence, causes, and far-reaching consequences. The essay begins by defining childhood obesity and highlighting its increasing prevalence, particularly in Australia, emphasizing that obese children are more likely to become obese adults. It then explores the interplay of genetic and environmental factors, including family practices, technology use, and dietary habits, which contribute to the issue. The essay also discusses the physical and psychological impacts of obesity, such as health issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, and depression, as well as social challenges like bullying and low self-esteem. Finally, the essay proposes prevention strategies, including promoting physical activity, healthy eating habits, and sufficient sleep, while emphasizing the role of parents, schools, and healthcare providers in fostering a supportive environment. The essay concludes by underscoring the importance of early intervention to mitigate the long-term effects of childhood obesity and optimize children's health and well-being.

Running head: Psychology essay
Preventing obesity in childhood
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author notes

1PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY
Childhood obesity, in recent days identified as a burden in all over the world. Obesity
and overweight has raised by verity of environmental as well as social factors, which majorly
influence the physical activity and food habit of individuals. However, according to an
estimation, more than average of 25% children in Australia is facing the issue of overweight.
The experiment showed that 1 in 4 children and 1 in 3 adults are suffering from overweight
and obesity in Australia (Hayes et al., 2016). There exists two main reasons of targeting the
childhood obesity. Firstly, obese and overweight children or even teens are much more likely
to be obese as adults as compared to the normal children; and the second reason is that, once
the overweight affects them or obese, losing weight is highly difficult. In addition to that, in
case of many children, unhealthy eating patterns along with negligible physical activity
become the major reason of overweight (Ogden et al., 2014). Since such habits are created in
early childhood; therefore, the prevention activities need to be done in this stage only (Sahoo
et al., 2015). This essay is going to be emphasize on the main reasons of early childhood
obesity, major problems related to this and the methods of preventing this issue.
Childhood obesity can be viewed as a serious medical condition, which not only
affects the children but also put major impact on the adolescents. Children who are suffering
with obesity are found to be more than the normal weight in terms of their height and age.
The vital reason of over weight gain in children are also similar to that in the adults, and
mainly includes factors like the genetics and behaviour of individuals (Kelsey et al., 2014).
The selected issue is an important matter to be concern and particularly troubling factor as the
additional pounds can cause many issue in their life and health issues such as high blood
pressure, diabetes along with high cholesterol can happen when they become adult. Most of
the obese children also grow to be obese adults, especially when one or both the parents
suffers from obesity. Obesity in early childhood might also lead to depression and poor self-

2PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY
esteem. A wide range of factors may bring on this health issue among the children and these
factors often come in combinations. The major risk factor for this issue is the obesity in both
parents. Other cause are also reflected by the genetic issues and family environment of the
children (Cote et al., 2013). Other important reasons for this issue also due to the body type
of the children and their psychological factors. However, main cause of obesity in childhood
are discussed below.
Childhood obesity mainly generated due to the interplay among several genetic as
well as environmental factors. Polymorphisms in several genes that controls the metabolism
and appetite can lead the individuals or children towards obesity while more than necessary
calories are present. In addition, more than 200 genes can also affect the individual’s weight
by determining the food preferences, metabolism, body type, and activity level. Some rare
genetic condition such as, MOMO syndrome, Leptin receptor mutation, Bardet-Biedl
syndrome, Melanocortin receptor mutations and many others (Kumar & Kelly, 2017). Apart
from the genetic issues, the family practices also become reason of obesity in case of the
children. Children, now a days are more likely to spend their time inside the house due to
higher addiction with the technologies; and hence, absence of physical activities are
becoming a reason for which children are getting overweight. As the family size decreases,
the pester power of children, along with their ability to force the adulthood and the intention
of doing what they want increases (Pulgaron, 2013). Therefore, the food routine and the food
consumption of them get affected. Apart from that, the social context present around the
family mealtime also plays a greater role increasing the childhood obesity. With the
development of several plans, government of several countries are providing meals to the
students. In some cases, the quality of lunches provided in the schools and lack of physical
activities and games leads the students towards higher obesity. As a whole, it can be said

3PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY
insufficient balance in the diet, unhealthy eating habits absence of sufficient physical
activities mainly lead towards childhood obesity (Bailey et al., 2014).
Discussing about the symptoms of overweight or obesity among the children, it can be
said that not all the children carry additional pounds or obese or overweight. However, some
children appear larger than their average body structures. During the development stages of
children, they normally carry several amounts of body fats (Simmonds et al., 2016).
Therefore, it need to be a major concern of the parents and family members to analyse
whether the child is just healthy by body structure or overweight. Measurement of body mass
index (BMI), on a periodical basis is necessary for the children that will provides an overall
idea about the correct weight of a child according to his/her age and height. Children who are
suffering from overweight or obesity often suffer from shortness of breath. Obese child faces
difficulty in effortlessly moving around and due to presence of higher fat around the neck,
facing of dyspnea is more obvious. The additional amount of fat also create complicacy for
the airflow in and out of the lungs (Wang et al., 2013).
The vital widespread consequences of the selected issue of childhood obesity are
related to the psychological effect on the kids. Obese children are considered as the easy
targets of systematic and early discrimination. However, as they become mature, these effects
become discrimination and become higher insidious and culture-bound (Bleich et al., 2013).
Obesity in the early childhood can have many harmful impacts on the children in terms of
both physically and mentally. Health issues like high cholesterol and high blood pressure are
some major consequence of obesity that lead to cardiovascular disease. In addition to that,
breathing issues like asthma along with sleep apnea can also happen due to this (Wabitsch,
Moss & Kromeyer-Hauschild, 2014). Musculoskeletal discomfort and joint pain can happen
when the obesity children enter in their adulthood. Gastro-esophageal reflux, heartburn,
gallstones, acidity and fatty liver disease are some common consequence of obesity that

4PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY
highly affect the children. Obese children found to break their bones easily as compared to
the children having normal weight. The chronic condition of overweight also affected by the
amount of consumption of sugar by the children and hence there exist a chance that the
children can face the type 2 diabetes. Apart from the health issues, many psychological issues
are also related to obesity that harms the mental health of children and hinders their normal
routine. Kids having this issue can often bullied or teased by others in their everyday life
(Mueller et al., 2015). This can highly affect their self-esteem and can cause higher
depression among them. Overweight kids also tend to have increasing anxiety along with
lesser social skills as compared to the normal-weight kids do. These issues can become a
reason for which children feel isolated in the society and feel hopeless. Obesity not only
create problem in the daily active lifestyle of the children, but can also cause severe back
pain. In addition to the above results, development of spondylolysis or any kind of spinal
stenosis along with several fracture in the vertebrae is a common finding of overweighed
people (Herouvi et al., 2013). Due to obesity, children might look more than their actual age
and much kind of other hormonal changes can develop (such as, velvety areas around the
neck and darkened body folds). Stretching of the body skin might give those Stretch marks in
many part of the body. Along with that, presence of higher retained moisture in the body
folds can also increase the development of fungi and bacteria. Obesity can also resulted in
development of calluses and corns on the feet. It is found that not only obese adults, but also
the obese children are more tend to snore (Langer-Gould et al., 2013). With the increasing
weight, the chance of obstructive sleep apnea can also occur.
Overviewing the consequences of the discussed issue, it can be said that prevention is
essential and activities related to this need to be undertaken on a priority basis. As lack of
sufficient physical activity is a major reason of obesity, therefore it should be considered as a
key component for managing and preventing the obesity (Gurnani, Birken & Hamilton,

5PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY
2015). Several unstructured activities need to be undertaken in the schools so that the
children can engage themselves in many outdoor games. Meanwhile, the school going
children as well as the adolescents need to have at least 60 minutes in their daily routine for
doing different physical workouts. Parents need to have more conscious about the foods
prepared in home and the outside foods that they are providing their children. It should not be
mandatory that the children have to finish everything that is in their plate; rather, parents need
to respect their children’s appetite. Limiting the outside foods especially the fast foods, and
outside oily foods and cold drinks and drinks containing soda is essential (Baidal et al.,
2016). Apart from cold drinks, the parents should ensure that the children are staying away
from consumption of different sugar-sweetened beverages available in the market. Other than
providing fast foods, children need to be provided with plenty of vegetables and foods.
Parents need to concentrate on the portion size of the meals that are appropriate for their age
(Lobstein et al., 2015). Late night sleep is another important reason for which children gain
over weight, therefore, parents must ensure that their child is getting enough sleep for a day.
Weight loss is definitely not an effective practice in case of most of the young
children, as their bodies are in a developing or growing phase. Hence, the overweight
children need not have to follow a strict diet until a physician or doctor supervises the same.
Apart from that, highly restrictive diet can never supply the required amount of nutrients and
energy for normal development and growth of the child’s body (Wang et al., 2015).
Therefore, the concentration should be on maintaining the standard weight, and a standard
height. Some essential strategies for avoiding obesity among the children are adopting
healthy eating practices, performing physical activity on a regular basis, and reducing the
sedentary activity (for example watching videotapes and television, playing video games).
Parents as well as the caregivers can definitely help their children in avoiding the obesity
issue by giving them healthy meals and snacks, scheduling physical activity on every day

6PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY
basis, and giving them nutrition education (Llewellyn et al., 2016). Increased physical
exercises and even medications are beneficial in reducing the above discussed health risks
among the children. Nutrition education can create awareness among the kids and they will
get a fair knowledge about healthy eating behaviours and good nutrition and for a lifetime.
Schools and family members need to teach positive and healthy attitudes toward physical
activity and food consumption practices (Showell et al., 2013). In addition to that, for
avoiding depression, it is necessary for the family members to treat their overweight children
equally.
Therefore, from the discussion above, it can be conclude that, the issue of childhood
obesity one serious medical condition that can affect the physical and mental health of
children. The extra pound of weight cause many health issue among the children and can ruin
their childhood with illness. In addition to that, this issue is also related to higher chances of
premature death as well as disability in the adulthood. Not only physically, the children
suffering from obesity are also found to be bullied and teased in many places. This can
develop depression and other mental and psychological problems among them. Therefore,
schools, parents and family members of the children need to concentrate on these factors.
Improper food routine, over consumption of fast food and oily foods and insufficient physical
exercise is identified as major reason for overweight among the children. This report has
discussed the reasons that are leading children towards overweight. Along with that the
psychological consequences such as depression and the medical consequences such as, high
blood pressure, increasing cholesterol level are discussed here. Several prevention
mechanism for avoiding obesity among children such as, concentrating on the food quality
and quantity, performing physical activities on a regular basis are discussed here.

7PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY
Reference
Baidal, J. A. W., Locks, L. M., Cheng, E. R., Blake-Lamb, T. L., Perkins, M. E., & Taveras,
E. M. (2016). Risk factors for childhood obesity in the first 1,000 days: a systematic
review. American journal of preventive medicine, 50(6), 761-779.
Bailey, L. C., Forrest, C. B., Zhang, P., Richards, T. M., Livshits, A., & DeRusso, P. A.
(2014). Association of antibiotics in infancy with early childhood obesity. JAMA
pediatrics, 168(11), 1063-1069.
Bleich, S. N., Segal, J., Wu, Y., Wilson, R., & Wang, Y. (2013). Systematic review of
community-based childhood obesity prevention studies. Pediatrics, 132(1), e201-
e210.
Cote, A. T., Harris, K. C., Panagiotopoulos, C., Sandor, G. G., & Devlin, A. M. (2013).
Childhood obesity and cardiovascular dysfunction. Journal of the American College
of Cardiology, 62(15), 1309-1319.
Gurnani, M., Birken, C., & Hamilton, J. (2015). Childhood obesity: causes, consequences,
and management. Pediatric Clinics, 62(4), 821-840.
Hayes, A., Chevalier, A., D'Souza, M., Baur, L., Wen, L. M., & Simpson, J. (2016). Early
childhood obesity: Association with healthcare expenditure in Australia. Obesity,
24(8), 1752-1758.
Herouvi, D., Karanasios, E., Karayianni, C., & Karavanaki, K. (2013). Cardiovascular
disease in childhood: the role of obesity. European journal of pediatrics, 172(6), 721-
732.

8PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY
Kelsey, M. M., Zaepfel, A., Bjornstad, P., & Nadeau, K. J. (2014). Age-related consequences
of childhood obesity. Gerontology, 60(3), 222-228.
Kumar, S., & Kelly, A. S. (2017, February). Review of childhood obesity: from
epidemiology, etiology, and comorbidities to clinical assessment and treatment. In
Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 92, No. 2, pp. 251-265). Elsevier.
Langer-Gould, A., Brara, S. M., Beaber, B. E., & Koebnick, C. (2013). Childhood obesity
and risk of pediatric multiple sclerosis and clinically isolated syndrome. Neurology,
80(6), 548-552.
Llewellyn, A., Simmonds, M., Owen, C. G., & Woolacott, N. (2016). Childhood obesity as a
predictor of morbidity in adulthood: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Obesity
reviews, 17(1), 56-67.
Lobstein, T., Jackson-Leach, R., Moodie, M. L., Hall, K. D., Gortmaker, S. L., Swinburn, B.
A., ... & McPherson, K. (2015). Child and adolescent obesity: part of a bigger picture.
The Lancet, 385(9986), 2510-2520.
Mueller, N. T., Whyatt, R., Hoepner, L., Oberfield, S., Dominguez-Bello, M. G., Widen, E.
M., ... & Rundle, A. (2015). Prenatal exposure to antibiotics, cesarean section and risk
of childhood obesity. International journal of obesity, 39(4), 665.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K., & Flegal, K. M. (2014). Prevalence of childhood and
adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012. Jama, 311(8), 806-814.
Pulgaron, E. R. (2013). Childhood obesity: a review of increased risk for physical and
psychological comorbidities. Clinical therapeutics, 35(1), A18-A32.

9PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY
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.
Showell, N. N., Fawole, O., Segal, J., Wilson, R. F., Cheskin, L. J., Bleich, S. N., ... & Wang,
Y. (2013). A systematic review of home-based childhood obesity prevention studies.
Pediatrics, 132(1), e193-e200.
Simmonds, M., Llewellyn, A., Owen, C. G., & Woolacott, N. (2016). Predicting adult obesity
from childhood obesity: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Obesity reviews,
17(2), 95-107.
Wabitsch, M., Moss, A., & Kromeyer-Hauschild, K. (2014). Unexpected plateauing of
childhood obesity rates in developed countries. BMC medicine, 12(1), 17.
Wang, Y., Cai, L., Wu, Y., Wilson, R. F., Weston, C., Fawole, O., ... & Chiu, D. T. (2015).
What childhood obesity prevention programmes work? A systematic review and
meta‐analysis. Obesity reviews, 16(7), 547-565.
Wang, Y., Wu, Y., Wilson, R. F., Bleich, S., Cheskin, L., Weston, C., ... & Segal, J. (2013).
Childhood obesity prevention programs: comparative effectiveness review and meta-
analysis. In Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE): Quality-assessed
Reviews [Internet]. Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (UK).

10PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY