Overview of Articles about Child Obesity - Essay Example

The article “Parental Communication Style's Impact on Children's Attitudes Toward Obesity and Food Advertising” by Hyunjae (Jay) Yu emphasizes the important role of parenting in the struggle against obesity. The author reminds us about obesity level increasing and the effect advertising may have on the level of obesity. Fast food is actively advertised and children are usually the first who follow this advertising. Here the author points out that children 12 years old spend much time with their parents, thus parents may have sea serious impact on children’s attitudes towards advertising, and, according to Hyunjae (Jay) Yu, this impact should be carefully studied.

The main purpose of the research conducted by the author was to study the effect of communication between children and their parents and the effect of advertising on the level of child obesity. The outcomes showed that the communication between parents and children has a considerable impact on how children perceive fast-food advertising and their behavior toward it (Hyunjae (Jay) Yu, 2011). The article “Differences between European Americans and African Americans in the Association between Child Obesity and Disrupted Parenting” by Simons et al also emphasizes the importance of the parent’s role.

However, the article deals with the issue of how the parents’ impact varies relating the race. The authors investigated the families of European and African Americans. The study showed that children from African American families suffer from obesity more frequently than children from European American families. The connection between healthy communication with parents, their care about their child’s weight, and obesity are inversely proportional for European American families. However, having studied African American families, the authors concluded that in these families communication and care about a child’s weight did not play a very important role, thus the connection between parents’ care and children’s obesity was not found.

According to Simons et al, it may happen primarily because in African American families high weight is not considered to be a serious problem and African Americans pay less attention to it than European Americans. Simultaneously, the authors point out that the situation has been changing as it can be stated that more and more African Americans start to pay attention to the problem of obesity (Simons et al, 2008). The third article titled “Child obesity ‘ leveling off’” provides us with more positive information concerning the problem of obesity.

It states that recent investigations showed that the forecasts on the level of obesity made for the year 2020 were too pessimistic as for now the number of overweight children is not as high as it was forecasted. Thus, we can hope that the level may drop by 2020. According to Gillian Merron, a health minister, “Obesity is one of the biggest health challenges we face. There are currently 1.5 million children and 25 million adults who are overweight or obese, leaving them at increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart and liver disease” (“Child obesity ‘ leveling off’).