Physical Activity Physical activity has also been an important area of study in the development of obesity among children. Physical activity provides significant health benefits for children including increase of physical fitness, reduce body fatness, and positive cardiovascular but few children meet the current recommendation of 60 minutes of physical activity per day (Hennessy, Hughes, Goldberg, Hyatt, & Economos, 2010). Physical activity, practices such as logistical and emotional support and direct modeling have been shown to be positively associated with higher child physical activity levels (Hennessy et al., 2010). Children whose parents demonstrated support and involvement in their everyday lives were associated with higher levels of …show more content…
Among Hennessy et al. (2014) study, they found that parenting styles played an important role in the performance of children’s ability to engage in physical activity. Numerous past studies support the association between authoritative parenting and positive child health outcomes. A study by Schmitz et al. found that authoritative parents have children who report higher levels of physical (Hennessy et al., 2014). Authoritative parenting style reflects support for physical activity and appropriate balanced levels of autonomy for their children. Authoritative parenting style was also linked to providing praise for their children physical activity habits, whereas discipline and monitoring of child physical activity was associated with authoritarian parenting style …show more content…
Children who lack this encouragement are involved in sedentary behavior such as spending more than 2 hours of daily screen time. Children’s BMI is a risk factor for screen time, every time children’s BMI increases it was associated with a 20% to 23% increase that the child had more than 2 hours of daily screen time (Langer et al., 2014). Authoritative parenting was not linked to an increase of screen time, but authoritarian and permissive parenting was linked with an increased of more than 2h of daily screen time (Langer et al., 2014). Langer et al. (2014) results stated that increasing physical activity among children, their screen time will decrease such as if children are physically active, they will simply have less time for sitting in front of a television. In order for screen time among obese or at-risk children decreases and physical activity increases, parents need to be aware on how they approach physical activity among children who are obese and those who are normal weight because parent take a different approach toward children who are obese than those who are not (Hennessy et al., 2014). Therefore, children are responsive towards parents’ moral support of their physical activity such as watching them participate in sporty events and the general feeling that
Exercise, food, technology, and money all play a role in causing childhood obesity. Lack of exercise among adolescents has been proven to be the leading cause of childhood obesity. According to a May 2012 Institute of Medicine report, only half of America’s children and one in four teens get enough activity to meet current guidelines (Doheny and Noonman 1). The recommendations call for children to participate in at least 60 minutes of vigorous to moderate physical activity every day (Hendrick 1). “Only four percent of elementary schools, eight percent of middle schools, and two percent of high schools provide daily physical ...
With the expansion in technology, children are hastily becoming more and more inactive. In the past century, kids would play outside from sunrise to sunset. Little did they realize, that playtime served as great daily exercise. Physical activity is a key necessity in keeping a healthy lifestyle. With the advancement of technology and the growing popularity of video games and television, fewer children are getting exercise. Stationary activities, such as video games and watching T.V., are keeping children inside and away from exercise. To blame just the kids for this lack of exercise would be wrong. The parents are the ones responsible for giving the children these games, but that is not all bad. Where it does turn bad however, is when the kids are given these games or televisions without a time restraint. Through research, they have found that 26% of children watch television for more than four hours a day. In efforts to encourage outside playtime for kids, Nickelodeon shut down programming daily from noon to 3pm. This seemed to be a great idea, but does it really help? Children are in school session Monday through Friday from 8am 3pm. The time Nickelodeon chose to go dark is the same time child...
It is important to consider that screen time represents only a portion of a child’s overall sedentary activity. Other sedentary activities may include doing school work, talking on the phone and riding in a school bus or car. Low levels of physical activity combined with consuming low nutrition energy dense foods are major contributors to the health challenges our children face today
Recently, there have been many active video games that have become popular amongst children that can encourage exercise. Video games such as the Wii and the Xbox connect engage children in a whole new way in which the whole body is actively involved. The scientific journal JAMA Pediatrics conducted a study to evaluate the effects of active video gaming on the physical activity and weight loss in children. The research group conducted a 16-week study on seventy five overweight or obese children that were enrolled into a community-based weight management program. The average age of the participants was 10 years old, the average BMI score was 2.15 and the percent of overweight form the median BMI was 64.3 percent. The participants were broken down into two groups to assess the effects that active video gaming could have on weight loss; however both groups received the family-based pediatric weight management program Join for Me. The participants in the program and active gaming group received a game console and motion capture device and one active game at their second treatment session. They also received a second game in week nine of the program. Participants in the program only group were handed the hardware items and two games at the completion of the 16-week program. The results of the study concluded that the participants in the program and active gaming group exhibited a great increase in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity but the program only group saw a decline or no change in their physical activity levels. In both groups, participants exhibited significant reductions in percentage overweight and BMI scores but the program and active gaming group exhibited a significantly greater amount (JAMA Pediatrics, 2014, p.1). This...
Many children become obese due to lack of exercise. Today’s generation of children enjoy television, video games, iPads, and laptops much more than what the earlier generations of children did. Electronics have taken the joy out of things, like going outside to run around and play. In her book Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance, Jeffrey P. Koplan includes how to get children involved in others things besides electronics, “Encouraging children and youth to be physically active involves pr...
Vanderwater, Elizabeth & Mi-Suk Shim. (2004) Linking Obesity and Activity level with children’s Television and Video game Use. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 71-85
American children many of whom is -> are overweight, are often forced by their parents to exercise. This may seem like a good idea, but it can cause some trouble later on. For example, children, who do not enjoy team sports, should not be pushed to do them because their aversion may later translate to a total refusal to exercise. A number of non-competitive sports is better suited for such children. Dancing, hiking, jogging and kayaking burns calories just as well, and may prove to be more relaxing to a non-competitive child. If either a friend or some family members also participates in the sport, most of the children likes that kind of activity. A lot of children loves being outdoors, if the family are there as well. Everyone think that
...mption of food and physical activity. To make their children more active, parents should stop buying videogames and set a time limit to decrease the amount of time their children spend in front of a computer screen. Another way to increase physical activity is to encourage children to join an extra-curricular activity. Although it is easiest to prevent obesity at a young age, many people in the United States grow up obese or become obese. To help and to encourage adults who are suffering from obesity, they need to learn the life-threatening effects that accompany the “heavy” burden.
By now almost everyone has heard about child obesity in America, but just how high are the rates? The answer might surprise you. According to Nate Whitman, a writer for The Huffington Post, “rates of obesity have doubled in 2- to 5-year-olds, quadrupled in 6- to 11-year-olds, and tripled in 12- to 19-year-olds” (par. 2). This is due to more children staying inside and only doing activities such as video games. They do not interact with anyone besides whomever they are talking to online. These findings are astonishing to say the least. What can we do to combat this? Involvement in organized sports helps children develop their social skills, improve their academic progress, and stay active.
Many people might spend their time or free time watching TV, or playing video games, which is a form of inactivity, and that might lead the person to become obese, in this case children are the most people who might exposed to it. A study was made in the USA, children who engaged in the least vigorous physical activity or the most television viewing to
Childhood obesity is a major health concern for children in the United States. Childhood obesity refers to kids from the ages of 2-19 years old who have a BMI in the 95th percentile or greater. Childhood obesity is an important topic because it can lead to adult obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic diseases.1 It can also cause the child to experience bullying, depression, and low self-esteem.1 Some risk factors for childhood obesity are poor diet, lack of physical activity, family history, and the environment. While much of the research focuses on the affect the physical environment has on obesity rates, the social environment is another factor that can affect childhood obesity rates. More specifically, social aspects such as family structure, parental support, parent influence (?), peer issues, and
Authoritative parenting has a stronger positive outcome due to the balance maintained within the structure of this parenting style. According to developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind, “Authoritative parents are firm, setting limits for their children. As the children get older, these parents try to reason and explain things to them. They also set clear goals and encourage their children's independence,” (Baumrind 2005). For example, a young boy wants to play video games all day and the parent decides this is unwise. It is a nice day outside and the parent wants him to go out and play. An authoritative approach would be to sit down with the child and explain the positives of playing outside rather than the negatives of playing video games. The parent would appeal to the child's interests in order to engage the child in effective parenting. The child would then be able to see the positive side of the decision rather than just the negative consequences.
The kids don’t need to be stuck in the house every day of the week and weekend. The kids need to go out and have some with their friends and family or go play with their pets. Responsibility was therefore found to be a concept that could be related to children 's physical activity. It was suggested that these behaviors could be used as a starting point in understanding the relationship between responsibility and physical activity, and to assist with the development of measurement tools assessing the relationship between responsibility and levels of physical activity in the future. In turn, this may lead to the development of more targeted messages for large-scale physical activity campaigns. “(Responsibility for children 's physical activity: Parental, child, and teacher perspectives)”. The parents should take things away from the kids so they can go have fun with their friends outside because kids don’t know how important it is to exercise, it could hurt them whenever they become old, they could become fat and we are sure that the kids wouldn’t appreciate that. But honestly is better for them to be fit, then to be fat and
Sigmund, E., Turonová, K., Sigmundová, D., & Přidalová, M. (2008). THE EFFECT OF PARENTS' PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND INACTIVITY ON THEIR CHILDREN'S PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SITTING. / VLIV POHYBOVÉ AKTIVITY A INAKTIVITY RODIČŮ NA POHYBOVOU AKTIVITU A SEZENÍ JEJICH DĚTÍ. Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis. Gymnica, 38(4), 17-24. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Kids learn by observing what their parents do, so parents need to model a healthy lifestyle for their kids. By being a positive supporter for a healthy lifestyle, and influencing our children’s lives with healthy choices, we pave the way for generations to come, to live healthy, fit lifestyles. By making simple decisions, such as taking the family out for a neighborhood walk, or playing with your dogs outside, parents can model healthy lifestyles for their kids, and also provide a fun, relaxing way of exercising. As well as making a lasting ,positive effect on their children’s life, parents can also connect with their children, by having relaxing conversations and learning more about them.