Hot Topic - Obesity in American Adolescents

So being a more or less health conscious individual and yet still loving to eat a bag of chips or a batch of cookies, the problems arising with teen obesity in American interest me.  Childhood obesity seems like such a preventable thing and yet the data keeps showing that rates raise each year.  It seems pretty clear that when obesity is present in children the blame can be placed on the parents or caretakers of those children.  However, does this same theory hold true when those children become adolescents? 

Now don't get me wrong here, a lot of adolescents were already obese before they hit their teen years and then it is very difficult for them to change their ways.  But at what point do adolescents become responsible for their health?  I tend to believe that an individual becomes responsible for their health when they turn eighteen and become responsible for taking care of themselves as an adult.  So in my mind, there is little doubt that parents, schools, and caretakers of children and adolescents are to blame for the childhood obesity problem in America...along with the growing social media.

These were my thoughts before I started to do some research which brought up new valid points and reinforced others.  One interesting article I found, http://www.cortezjournal.com/article/20120713/NEWS01/707139999/Obesity-%E2%80%94-a-big-issue-facing-tribes, discussed how Native Americans make up the nation's highest obesity rates and discussed how that population is working to combat their community's problems with obesity.  This article reminded me how much cultural backgrounds impact a child and their development.  Cultural heritage is a large aspect which can greatly contribute to a child or adolescent being overweight. 

Two of the more interesting articles I found state that social influences and one's choice of friends also have an impact on obesity.  In short, these articles state that if one hangs out and interacts with thin friends, one tends to be thinner and loss weight.  Whereas if one hangs out and interacts with overweight friends, one tends to be overweight and gain weight.  Homophily, the tendency to select similar friends also plays into this equation.  The social aspect of physical appearance is one I have always acknowledge but I never realized that it could work both ways, making youth want to loss or gain weight according to who they hung around with, as society in general promotes the thin aspect.  I guess this makes a lot of sense for adolescents though for both weight gain and weight loss as they strive to be accepted by their groups of peers, not society as whole.  For adolescents, weight is influenced by who your friends are. Here are the two articles:  http://www.doctorslounge.com/index.php/news/pb/30488 and http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/07/study-of-the-day-among-groups-of-friends-obesity-is-contagious/259620/

The last few articles I looked at considered the school's place in this equation as there is the constant argument of more or less gym time along with improving food choices at school.  For me, there is no question here at all.  Schools need to continue to help address the growing issue of obesity in youth by continuing to have physical activities or gym classes throughout the day and providing more nutritious foods and health education.  Children spend almost 2,000 days of their lives at school which is why schools cannot ignore the growing concern of obesity amongst adolescents and simply blame the parents.  Here are the articles:  http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/despite-obesity-concerns-gym-classes-are-cut-644222/ and http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2012/0627/Obesity-in-America-Schools-on-the-front-line-of-the-fight

We are all to blame for obesity in American Adolescents.  Parents, society, schools, caretakers, peer groups, and eventually the adolescent themselves all need to step up out of the digital world to attack the ever growing issue of obesity in America.

Reading Reflections - Physical Development

            I never realized how much the physical aspects of an adolescent relates to all of the other facets of development such as cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioral.  However, after reading all of these links I can easily see how physical development connects with all of the other forms of developments.  I forget which article touched on the idea that it is very difficult to view a child in individual parts when talking about development, but I could not agree more with this statement.  The development of an adolescent is a combination of many different aspects; it just so happens that physical development is the most apparent to the naked eye and seems to have a large effect on the other aspects. 

            The Developing Adolescents: A Reference for Professionals opened by remarking that one must remember these concepts and ideas are only guidelines as each child is an individual who will develop at different rates than their peers.  However, eventually every adolescent will go through the same stages of development by the time they reach adulthood.  I personally thought that was a great reminder to open with.  This article also took the time to remark about the diversity amongst the students in the U.S. and how that will affect the pace of their development.  I had never really thought about if a white child developed physically at a different rate than an African American child before I read this article.  That is a very interesting concept to me that our ethnicity and cultural differences cause not only value and background differences, but even physical development differences.  It is an aspect of physical development which I had never considered before.

            The overall concept of these readings I felt were the basic biological changes which our bodies go through during puberty.  Although we have all learned about these changes time and time again, it amazes me how much I forget about the changes the opposite sex (male) goes through and how those changes greatly affect them as well.  I remember one of my smaller male friends stating to me in the tenth grade that he was finally taller than me as he glowed with pride.  I never really understand how important that moment was to him…and he ended up growing to about 6’6” or something crazy like that when it was all said and done. 

These readings did a great job of reminding the reader that although they are discussing physical changes, these physical changes also affect the adolescent’s self-image and self-esteem which can lead to other issues in regards to developing in a positive way like adolescents need too.  A Guy’s Guide to Body Image was a great reminder about how males struggle with body image concepts as well.  Being a female we are all aware of what we are “supposed” to look like.  But I often forget to stop and think about what males are “supposed” to look like as well.

            As stated in our first day of class, “you teach who you are”, it feels appropriate to give my own physical development story.  I was one of those young adolescent girls who grew to her full physical height and size around the age of twelve.  Up until a few years ago I still had clothes in my closet that I had worn in Middle School because they still fit!  Being the first in my class to start wearing a bra, I was quickly on the “outs” within my own age group.  At slightly under six feet in the sixth grade my basketball and volleyball coaches loved this new development.  I however felt very awkward and out of place on many occasions…I still can’t wear high heels very well.  One of my close female friends did not become physically developed until around the tenth grade and by then she was jealous of me which further confused me as I was already sick of having menstrual cycles at that point.  My mom even told me that people would ask her why her child was playing with children who were younger than her to which my mom would politely state I wasn’t as the children I was playing with were my same age even though I was twice their size.  Reading these articles really reminded me how this early development affected other aspects of my development.

            For example, I have issues dating men who are shorter than me.  It is a 100% self-esteem and body image issue which I have yet to be able to shake off from developing earlier than my peers.  I have managed to date men who are the same height as me…but shorter, you can forget about it!  In the sixth grade I had a “boyfriend” who refused to dance with me at a school dance which broke my heart.  It wasn’t until a few years later that I realized he probably didn’t want to dance with me because he was shorter than me and came up to right around my chest.  I also had a couple of older men who tried to “pick me up” before I even knew what that was because I was only twelve.  The most memorable and horrify of which was in a hot tube at a ski resort where a sixteen year old continued to flirt with me even after I told him I was only twelve and didn’t want anything to do with that.  I went crying to my mom who blamed herself for not going down to the hot tub with me. 

These may seem like silly examples, but these readings along with my past experiences really helped me put into perspective how developing physically early or late can greatly affect other aspects of an adolescents development.  It came no surprise to me that adolescents who do have early or late physical development and adolescents who struggle with defining their sexual identity are at higher risks for risky behavior, suicide attempts, sexual activity, and other issues.  These issues are not easy to deal with and the adolescent will often feel alone and ashamed of that feeling.  It amazes me that people still believe being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is a mental illness that can be “cured” and frankly, it disgusts me.  We are all human beings, why isn’t that enough to be able to accept one another as we are?

Lastly, the Recognizing Healthy and Unhealthy Sexual Development in Children article really shocked me for some reason.  I had never thought of the idea that children have “sexual play” or how children move from being innocent and unaware of the idea and concept of sex to hormones raging everywhere.  It makes sense that children would display sexual play before they become adolescents, I just always thought of this as children displaying love and affection instead of using the label “sexual play”.  It also really saddens me that some children are sexually reactive which will greatly affect their future development in many ways.  It really is amazing how the physical development of an adolescent can greatly contribute to the overall development.