Introduction
Available literature on obesity suggests that the prevalence of obesity, a condition that result from positive energy balance, is on the rise thereby posing a serious threat on public health due its relation to chronic diseases in addition, to causing premature deaths. Obesity normally result from a situation in which the energy supplied to the body is far much higher that the amount of energy that the body spends in carrying out various physical activities. With the recent severe rise in the total number of obese school children, there has been recorded a dramatic flawing in the academic performance of obese children, therefore, attracting a lot of researches with the aim of designing sound amelioration model, all with coordinated action intended to help the affected school children and teenagers. Basing their argument on the overarching idea that obesity, a contemporary world issue with a long history, has an openly known cause with a straight forward, simple solution, researchers have come up with various proven health programs that can be used to ameliorate this vice. Kafia Ayadi present one of such proven model; result that he reported in a journal titled “The role of school in reducing the prevalence of child obesity” published in the year 2008 by Young Consumers Publishers. This paper is, therefore, aimed at reviewing and ultimately providing a sound analysis on the relevance and effectiveness of Ayadi’s work in reverting obesity in school children.
Background Information
According to Ayadi (2008), there is an alarming constant increase in obesity case especially in children between ages five and eleven which has in turn has attracted a lot if international concern. For instance, in America alone, the percentage of children under that age of 10 is hitting 30%, a statistic that is expected to tremendously go up if nothing is done to check this situation. Ayadi (2008) asserts that children victims of the obesity pandemic risk suffering from cardiovascular diseases and diabetes type 2, all of which known to be key contributors to children mortality rates. Ayadi further argues that, converse to the common knowledge that obesity has a simple straightforward cause; obesity is caused by genetic predispositions and intrinsic factors that mutually interact with the specific sociocultural factors thereby making the understanding of the cause of obesity a little bit complex. However, with joint actions of the parties involved in this pandemic, fructuous results can be obtained. It is in this light that Ayadi conducted a research to empirically institute the role that the school can play as part of the joint effort aimed at reducing child obesity by introducing the idea of reverse socialization. Ayadi (2008) affirms that, with the reverse socialization model, there are various actors that take part, the children and their peers, the school, parents and school authorities. Reverse socialization aims at passing information about obesity to school children who in turn are expected to share the information with their parents thereby affecting parents’ behavior with regards to obesity.
The study underscored the crucial role that consumer knowledge about the marketplace, parents, school, and the peers play in socializing, regulating and determining as well as modifying the children’s food intake trends (Ayadi, 2008). It was instituted that children through a series of developmental stages during the process of maturing, grasp knowledge and skills about consumption. Parents were seen to play a crucial role of teaching children how to consume various types of consumables also teaching children the basics of the diet. Again, the children learnt how to take various foods by imitating the parents. The school as a substantial socializing factor was found to play the role of educating the children conventional rules of conduct. Because children spend a better fraction of their time in school, the school was associated with the primary role of offering nutritional education to the children (Ayadi, 2008). It was in this light that Ayadi highlighted that the school can teach the children the basic of healthy living through consumption of balance diets and involvement in physical activities (Ayadi, 2008). Further, due to the strong attachment that children have to their peers, Ayadi asserted that the peers could be taught about healthy living, teaching that they were expected to share with their peers who in turn we are expected to share with their respective parents (Ayadi, 2008).
It is evident that the underlying idea behind Ayadis Reverse Socialization model is the fact that children can be used to effect appropriate changes to their parent. With proper diets, the vice posed by poor eating habits which are the key causes of obesity could be eliminated. The researcher provides us with a report of his findings written in a frightfully straightforward language hence suitable for readership by virtually everyone regardless of the diversity of their reading intention. Ayadi’s works are commendable he does not give a precise background information about the topic. Quite obviously, the researcher has tried to relate his study to the existing literature on child obesity, which affirms the relevance of his study.
Methodology
The research design of Ayadi’s work is commendable only that the sample size of only 40 school children was not enough to warrant him make such a broad conclusion. The fact that his research methodology targeted such a small number of respondents presents one of the major weaknesses of his study. He also talks about the influence of peers and teachers which are not included in his research methodology. Further, the number of questions asked during the interview was not sufficient in comparison to the amount of time that he spent conducting a single interview. The researcher should also have explored other avenues of data collection as a means of guaranteeing that he gets accurate and self sufficient data.
Results
The result highlighted the effectiveness of school programs in helping in the fight against child obesity. A thematic content analysis was tremendously useful in enabling the researcher to understand the scintillating role that the school can play in the fight against child obesity. The researcher came to the realization that the children could modify their dietary practices by taking heed of the stipulates about food taught in school which the children could further share with the parent at home. He further anecdotally found out that, apart from knowing the various components of foods served at school and in restaurants, the children were ware of the various beneficial emanating from eating various kinds of foods to the extent of prescribing new types of foods to their families.
The approach that the researcher analyzing his findings went a long way in enabling him articulates a sound solution regardless of the fact that the research had a weakness in terms of the sample size. The research, however, should also have been centered on the lessons taught in school in which, I personally think are the key determinant of Ayadi’s proposed child obesity reduction model.
Utilization
In as much as the research had some weighty downfall, it is logical to say that the model presented by the research can be used as one of the many tools and programs for reducing cases of child obesity. The stake holders in the education arena can also find this article useful in helping come up with relevant educational practices for the obese children. The research also opens an opportunity if further research in the potential use of the school as a means of improving performance of obese students as well as well as bettering the hereby presented model. However, it is recommendable that the future researches should strive to target a larger number of respondents as well as exploring other method of data collection. Lastly, the finding of this research can arguably be extended to clinical practice since child obesity.
Reference
Ayadi, K. (2008). “The Role of School in Reducing the Prevalence of Child Obesity”. Young
Consumers, 9(3), 170-178. doi: 10.1108/17473610810901606
