Analyzing the Impact of Junk Food on Children's Health: Theories

This report delves into the impact of junk food on the health of school-going children, utilizing a qualitative research-based approach. It analyzes the issue through the lens of several theories, including the theory of planned behavior, behavioral approach, co-production theory, and intervention theory. The paper explores how these theoretical frameworks provide a strong foundation for understanding the issue, examining parental attitudes, behavioral patterns, and the influence of social conditioning on children's eating habits. The report highlights the importance of these theories in understanding the causes of unhealthy eating patterns, the rise of childhood obesity, and the need for intervention strategies. It emphasizes the significance of considering both the strengths and limitations of each theory to provide a comprehensive perspective on the complex relationship between junk food consumption and children's health outcomes. Furthermore, the report underscores the role of various stakeholders and the need for integrated research approaches, including both qualitative and quantitative methods, to address this critical public health concern. The paper concludes by emphasizing the indispensable role of theory in research to formulate generalizations and understand the underlying factors influencing children's health.

Running head: THEORIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION
Theories and their implication
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1THEORIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION
Introduction
This paper aims to analyse the issue of effects of junk food in the health of the school
going children by using the qualitative research based article where the researcher has used
certain theories to explain the further study. This is divided into several parts, and the paper will
be analysing multiple sources for understanding how these theories can help build the proposed
research and deepen the understanding. The aim of the paper is to analyse how the theoretical
framework in research is used to provide researchers a strong foundation and the utilisation of
theory in research.
Discussion
The theory of planned behaviour has been used in this article to study the positive and
negative attitudes towards the behaviour of the parents to understand the growing pattern of junk
consumption among the new generation (Montano et al., 2015). The rationale of the author
behind using this theory is that the current behaviour of the children can be deciphered from the
behavioural pattern of the parents (Montano et al., 2015). This theory is particularly critical
because it provides an overview and understanding of the parental attitudes mostly belonging to
the lower income families to find out if there is a transmission of the same behavioural pattern
among the children as well (Montano et al., 2015). This is helpful in analysing the issue from a
different perspective, and this theory provides data and analysis based on the actual behaviour of
the included parties (Boyland et al., 2015). The theory of planned behaviour is one of the
prominent theories of the discipline of psychology which is the theory linking the behavioural
perception of the child with their food habit (Baidal et al., 2018). It is used here as a method to

2THEORIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION
determine the behavioural link for the higher consumption of foods and drinks (Berge et al.,
2015). Hence, it is essential to consider the theory used in the research study for adopting a
holistic understanding of the issue.
This article focuses on the issue of health concerns of the children and their reasons for
this unhealthy pattern of living (Parker et al., 2019). One of the primary causes of this health
behaviour is found to be the consumption of junk foods and beverages in higher quantity than
before. The author has made use of the data-driven approach for conducting the study and the
consistent behavioural theory have been used in this article to understand the issue of the future
concern of the children and their health behaviour (Parker et al., 2019). What is important to
consider here is that the theory of planned behaviour is used as the method to find out answers to
the questions like "why there are certain sets of behaviour related to the food habit and what are
the factors responsible for such behaviour". Every research acquires a strong basis when there
are sound theoretical frameworks because it helps to provide ideas about the concepts and ideas
using the theoretical understanding. Ultimately all theory provides generalisations about the
different phenomenon, and it is essential to relate the topic by using a theoretical structure in
research. This theory has been used to understand the lower levels of physical activity among
children and the increase in sedentary behaviour. The importance of this particular theory and
their application is essential to understand the behavioural typologies, the socio-demographic
characteristics and weight status of the children in schools (Parker et al., 2019). This approach
will help in finding out the future impact of obesity and other health issues among the children
by analysing the data of how many children are highly inactive and how many of them have an
obese tendency (Parker et al., 2019). This theory is particularly critical to understand the reasons
for the future health issues of the children with the exclusive focus on their future aspect. This in

3THEORIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION
addition to the previous article will help to understand the issue from a futuristic perspective
(Parker et al., 2019). This is also important because this theory is used in understanding the
behavioural aspect of the children who consume the maximum level of junk foods (Kaiser et al.,
2015). This article along with the planned theory of the previous article will contribute to the
holistic understanding of the issue of effects on junk food on the health issue of the children in
U. S (Kaiser et al., 2015).
As per the author, the healthy habits and dietary practices are something that starts from
childhood. It gets carried forward in the later period of life (Baraldi et al., 2018). It is estimated
that if the eating habit for the junk food and the drinking pattern be changed from childhood,
there is a lesser chance of issues like obesity, diabetes among the young. The life expectancy
would see positive growth. The author has conducted researches on the study of the behavioural
approach of a particular section of people to understand and analyse the eating and drinking
pattern of the youth and the adolescents (Marteau, 2018). The author has adopted the behavioural
theory and approach method to study the behaviour of the adult and the youth to highlight the
issue of childhood eating practices (Marteau, 2018). This provides a helpful method of analysing
the behavioural aspect of the child and their eating drinking practices. This behavioural theory is
based on the information based approach which helps to understand the changing behavioural
pattern based on specific information associated with it (Marteau, 2018). This theory and the
approach according to the author is useful in analysing the data. Why this theory can be helpful
in conducting the research is that the idea of changing attitude can be only studied by the study
of the behaviour of the people. This theory is critical because it provides an understanding of the
different factors for the social conditioning of the people (Marteau, 2018). It is the idea of why
people behave in a certain way, and it is argued by the sociologist that there is a high impact of

4THEORIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION
the social conditioning in the food habit of the people (Kaiser et al., 2015). According to the
data, eating habit practices are conditioned by the social conditioning of the people (Marteau,
2018).
According to the author, the increasing number of obesity and obesity-related health
issues like high blood pressure and hypertension is something that has a direct correlation with
the higher consumption of the junk food from childhood (Baraldi et al., 2018). However, the
approach of the author is different while studying the effect of junk food on school-age children.
The Coproduction theory and approach has been adopted in the study to involve the multiple
stakeholders for the research which can provide a sound base to the research (Baraldi et al.,
2018). This is argued that child obesity is the new problem of the century and to understand the
underlying factors of the obesity-related issues, it is important to take the co-productive approach
(Baraldi et al., 2018). This approach is inclusive of the multiple stakeholders of the process that
can give a holistic approach of the multiple stakeholders in the study (Kaiser et al., 2015). This
particular approach is helpful in conducting the research on the chosen subject because unlike the
earlier approach which primarily focused on the behavioural aspect of the study to find out the
eating habits of the individuals, this approach is concerned with the study of behaviour of the
multiple stakeholders than the primary focus on the individual (Baraldi et al., 2018). This
approach could be used in the study to conduct further research on the effects of junk food on the
health impact of the children.
The last approach and theory adopted by the author is the almost over 60 % of the
population is depended on the ultra-processed food for the intake of the most of the calories
(Malden et al., 2018). It is argued that this eating habit has been modified the eating habit and
practices of the new generation of children. The author has conducted the research based on the

5THEORIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION
data of socio-demographic variables (Malden et al., 2018). The theory used by the author is the
intervention theory (Malden et al., 2018). This theory is particularly relevant here because it
helps to identify the issue of preventive obesity among children and adolescents by sing
intervention methods like Toybox (Malden et al., 2018). It is essential to consider the validity of
the theory in conducting research on the effects of junk food on children (Davis et al., 2015).
This theory includes multiple intervention tools that are used for reducing the health-related risks
and support measures conducive to health benefits (Malden et al., 2018). This theory could be
utilised in conducting the research because it helps in analysing the several important factors of
the issue and will also contribute to finding the risk and the behavioural factors of the issue.
It is important to note that these theories have particular strengths and weaknesses and it
is essential to acknowledge the limitations of these theories while applying them to conduct the
research analysis. The behavioural theory has been adapted to conduct the research because it
provides insight in to the specific behavioural issue of the children and adolescents (Dumuid et
al., 2017). However, the behavioural theory has certain inherent limitations like it is only limited
to the behavioural aspect of the individual analysis. It tends to ignore the other aspect of
analysing the issue of the effect of junk food (Dumuid et al., 2017). Secondly, the co-productive
theory is vital to understand the involvement of the stakeholders in understanding the alternative
perspective of the issue (Dumuid et al., 2017). It is important to note that the multi-diversity of
approaches and theories have been adopted to provide the research with an integrated and
comprehensive perspective. However, all the theories have their inherent strengths and
limitations, and it is essential to consider them while applying them to a particular study.

6THEORIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION
Summary of the issue
It is to be noted that the use of theory in research is to formulate conclusions or
generalisations based on the inherent and acquired data and it is through the use of these data,
that the underlying factors are realised. This, in turn, helps in formulating the research questions
in a comprehensive manner. The issues of the impact of the junk food are the general issue where
the theories of planned behaviour, behavioural approach, the co-productive approach and the
data-driven toybox method are used to test diverse aspects of the issue. The critical question here
is that these theories form the backbone of any proposed research because there is an inevitable
phenomenon where it is difficult to explain the situation, and it is only through the use of theory
that some phenomenon is realised. It is noted that a qualitative approach may seem to limit the
scope of the research and there are need to introduce other resources of quantitative resources
both primary and secondary to conduct the research (Dumuid et al., 2017). However, it is
essential to consider the theories of the discipline to present the research as it is used for
substantiating the understanding. The theory of planned behaviour is used in formulating
generalisations are used in understanding the behavioural aspects of the issue while the co-
productive and behavioural theory are used to understand the multiple stakeholders and their
respective behaviours in this issue. Hence, the need of theory is in indispensable in finding the
underlying aspects of the proposed research issues. Thus, it can be said that for conducting
integrated research, quantitative as well as qualitative researches are essential.
Conclusion
The aim of the paper is to analyse multiple theories of the discipline to understand the
validity of each theory and their importance while applied to the actual research. The paper has

7THEORIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION
discussed the theories adopted by the researcher, and it is validated that each of the theory has
some unique approach to answer the research question. While the behavioural theory could be
used in finding some of the behavioural aspects of the research issue, the intervention and co-
productive theories could be used for finding the underlying factors of the research questions.
Hence, it is essential that the theories are used with caution and conclusions are to be made by
conducting thorough research on the issue

8THEORIES AND THEIR IMPLICATION
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