Gender Studies Program

The number of children and teens that are overweight or obese has more than tripled between the years of 1980 and 2004. While obesity is not restricted by gender, ethnicity or socio-economic status, there is a slightly increased risk for those who are of poorer families. Girls are more likely to be overweight than boys, and Hispanic and African American teens are slightly more likely to be obese than other races.

Younger people, especially teens who are obese, face multiple problems caused by their weight. First, they face the same health problems that an overweight adult would, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension and cancer. Second, they face developmental troubles because of their weight and their health, especially if they are unable to go to school on a regular basis. And finally, they also face social development problems as they struggle to develop their personality while facing peer pressures beyond what the average child is facing.

Children and teens become obese for a variety of reasons: they tend to eat a poorly balanced diet filled with fast foods and very limited fruits and vegetables. One study showed that girls and boys ages 10 to 15 admitted that French fries were the only vegetable that they consumed on a regular basis. Another study showed that girls would eat other vegetables but only if they were covered in a cheese sauce.

In addition to poor food choices, they tend to be very sedentary, most of them spending most of their time in front of a television or computer screen or texting and talking on their cell phones. Finally, the children in the study that were found to be the most overweight also had overweight parents, suggesting not only a genetic link to explain their weight but an atmospheric one as well. After all, children of smokers tend to be smokers themselves, so it would stand to reason that obese parents typically will produce obese children.

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