2-093 - Social and Cognitive Aspects of Weight Problems: Obesity in School and Child Care Settings

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The proposed symposium addresses key issues in child obesity identified by research in school and child care settings. It features shared perspectives across multistate, integrated nutrition and child development research teams operating from unique conceptual frameworks on child obesity etiology, maintenance, and prevention and intervention. The first paper reveals that teachers in Head Start centers were more likely than teachers in other child care programs to meet Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics benchmarks for healthful mealtime feeding practices that combat obesity. The second paper finds that public school teachers judged severely obese children to have more learning problems than children from other weight categories. In contrast, neither mothers’ judgments nor children’s perceptions of cognitive self-competence differed by weight status. The third paper reports results of a randomized controlled trial classroom intervention sensitizing children to social rejection and inclusion. Children in the intervention – particularly severely obese children – were less likely to increase in BMI compared to controls, and above and beyond effects of family-level interventions. Taken together, papers suggest a shared ecosystems perspective and obesity prevention entry points and targets, all of which need to be addressed simultaneously across ecosystems levels in order to combat child obesity and promote positive development for children with excess weight in the early years of life. Targets for obesity prevention and positive development of obese children include consistency of policy implementation across child care and school settings as well as reducing teacher bias and disparity in children’s social inclusion within and across settings.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chair

• Laura Hubbs-Tait, Oklahoma State University

Discussant

• Barbara H. Fiese, University of Illinois, Family Resiliency Center

Individual Presentations

• The Role of Teachers in Combating Obesity in Child Care Settings - Presenting Author: Brent McBride, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign; Dipti Dev, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Barbara H. Fiese, University of Illinois, Family Resiliency Center

• Learning Experiences and Cognitive Self-Competence of Overweight, Obese, and Severely Obese Children in Early Elementary School - Presenting Author: Ashley Kimble, Oklahoma State University; Laura Hubbs-Tait, Oklahoma State University; Taren M. Swindle, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; Julie M. Rutledge, Louisiana Tech University; Glade L. Topham, Kansas State University; Tay Seacord Kennedy, Oklahoma State University; Lenka H. Shriver, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Amanda Harrist, Oklahoma State University

• Can a Social Intervention in the Classroom Impact Obesity? Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial - Presenting Author: Amanda Harrist, Oklahoma State University; Julie M. Rutledge, Louisiana Tech University; Taren M. Swindle, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; Laura Hubbs-Tait, Oklahoma State University; Lenka H. Shriver, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Glade L. Topham, Kansas State University