Children age 6-12 obesity and the effects on learning in Education.
1.0 Sampling
The participants of this study will involve 1,166 middle school students, 286 of which are in sixth grade and 8080 in the seventh grade. The children will be drawn from a middle school located in an urban city. Half of the participants will be boys and the other half girls. Regarding their weight, the participants will be observed to determine the percentage of those that are underweight, healthy, overweight and obese. The number of students in the four weight categories will be separated by grade level.
2.0 Data Collection
The measurements of both height and weight that will be utilized in determining BMI and BMI percentile rankings will be obtained at routine health screenings across the urban middle level school. The screenings will be undertaken during the first three months of school. The measurements will then be entered in software which will calculate BMI percentile rankings using BMI-for-age growth charts. The researcher will then code each participant as per the CDC weight classifications considered as the standard for determining obesity. Importantly, the researcher will consider the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test.
The data on the participants’ indicators and performance will then be added to the health statistics to find out the effects of obesity on the participants’ academic performance. The researcher will obtain the end of year class grade averages for a number of subjects like Science, Reading, Mathematics and social studies in the urban school database.
3.0 Analyzing Data
According to Himes and Dietz (1994) the body mass index is the ratio of a person’s weight to their height squared which determines the body fatness in each of the participants. BMI is used as the key method for classification because it correlates to measures which do directly calculate body fat in most children and teens. The study will also consider the BMI-for-age growth charts to obtain percentile ranking for each person. The rankings will then be used to classify each participant into one of four weight classes. This will be interpreted according to Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2007). The center states that less than 5th percentile is regarded as underweight and health weight is 5th to 84the percentile. In addition, the 85th-94th percentile is considered as overweight and obese is a percentile equal to or greater than the 95th. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (2003) and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2005) have affirmed that over weight children are those with a percentile equal to or greater than 95th percentile. These standards will be used in this study to determine obese status of the participants.
4.0 Statistical Techniques
Statistics is a crucial part of quantitative research in education. To design and carry out a clear quantitative educational research, the researcher needs to understand the statistics tools at their disposal. There are a number of statistical techniques that help researchers discover and understand the data. In education setting, multiple dependent and independent variable are usually analyzed simultaneously. Therefore, the researchers should exploit the available statistical Analysis Software appropriately. Based on this, a Multivariate Analysis of Variance procedure will be used in this study. This is used when there is a single or more independent variables and two or more dependent variables. To determine the disparities in participants’ grades and TASKS score, the researcher needed to check skeweness and kurtosis. In addition, the teacher assigned course grade statistically requires MANOVA. This is because there are a number of subjects (Maths, Science, Reading and Social Studies) that act as independent variables. Descriptive Statistics for participants’ academic performance by weight status will be represented as follows:
Obese Non-obese
Grade M SD M SD
Math
Reading
Science
Social Studies
Another MANOVA will be conducted to find out the extent to which TASKS score relates to participants’ weight. The descriptive statistics for Participants’ TASKS grade by weight status will be represented as follows:
Obese Non-Obese
TASKS M SD M SD
Mathematics score
Writing score
Reading score
5.0Inferential statistics
The procedures used to make inferences about unknown score depend on the kind of data used and the objective of making the inference. The Analysis of variance procedure will be utilized in the study because there are many dependent variables. The study is aimed at finding out the effects of obesity on mathematics, reading, Science and Social studies performance. Therefore instead of conducting one test at a time the researcher will simply do an ANOVA which analyzes the four sets data simultaneously. The procedure is needed for analysis of complex data because it combines all the data into a single statistical procedure. Moreover the analysis is able to determine the interaction effects. The tables above represents the interaction effects of Mathematics, Science and Reading that can not be detected by simple techniques like t-tests.
6.0 The Validity and Reliability of Data.
The participants’ performance will be based on both the teachers’ grades and standardized measures that is TASKS scores. The TASKS is a state based Assessment student program which is managed and developed by the Student Assessment Division. The Assessment helps measure the mastery of the state curriculum in all levels. Therefore, the data collected is reliable because the questions in the assessment cannot be manipulated by the researcher. On the other hand the teacher scores will be obtained from the school’s database and therefore will be valid data.
7.0 The Ethical and legal Issue.
The term obesity is not used to describe children and therefore this study has embraced the term overweight to define obesity. Because the participants of the researcher are children aged 6-12 years, the researcher will have to get a permit from both the parents and the head teacher of the school. The questions used in the study will also be framed in a way that it does not offend the participants. Lastly, since the study will only be conducted on one urban school in Texas. This information should not be used to make general statements because it may not apply to students in other school.
8.0 Data Analysis of Institutions
The study will be conducted on one institution which will be an urban school in the middle level setting for children in the sixth and seventh grade. The findings will therefore not be used to make generalizations. However, the study will help the research know whether there is a relationship between a child’s weight and academic performance. Therefore the findings will be used to offer measures through which the school can combat the effects of overweight on learning.
9.0 Research Studies
The children overweight and obesity condition has been compared to serious threats like bio-terrorism and small pox as it is seen as the most threatening illness in the US (Kramer, Allen & Gergen, 1995) . Trost (2007) has also found out that obesity though devoid of serious health consequences it is linked to several risk factors for hypertension, dislipedemia and diabetes type 2. A study conducted by (Miller & Downey, 1999) revealed that overweight and obese children are at high chance of having low self-esteem and have higher rates of depression and other psychopathology. To explore the relation between obesity and behavioral and economic factors, Mikkila, Lahti-Koski, Pietinen, Virtanen & Rimpela (2003) carried out a cross-sectional study in Finland which indicated that obesity is highly associated with the family low socio-economic status.
The findings of another study Conducted in Thailand revealed that school performance declined with an increase in weight (Mosuwan, Lebel, Puetpaiboon & Junjana 1999). The overweight students showed poor grades because of low self esteem, psychological stress and missing classes due to complications related with obesity. Tremblay, Inman &Williams, (2003) examined the relationship between increased physical activity, self esteem and academic performance. The study concluded that physical activity levels were associated with both the self esteem and academic achievements of the participants.
10.0 Conclusion
Currently, the popularity of obese children in the United States has dramatically risen. According to recent reports approximately 16% of children aged 2-19 years are overweight. This status has both short term and long term consequences and therefore, this issue calls for serious focus. For this reason this study will be important in indicating whether there exist a correlation between obesity and academic achievement among children.
References:
American Academy of Pediatrics (2003). Policy Statement: Prevention of pediatric overweight and obesity. Pediatrics, 112(2), 424-430.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2007). Overweight and obesity. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from the Department of Health and Human Services Web site: http://wwwtest.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/resources.htm.
Himes, J. H., & Dietz, W. J. (1994). Expert Committee on Clinical Guidelines for Overweight in Adolescent Preventive Services: Guidelines for overweight in adolescent preventive services: Recommendations from an expert committee. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 59(2), 307-316.
Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2005). Preventing childhood obesity: Health in the balance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Kramer RA, Allen L, Gergen PJ (1995). Health and social characteristics and Children’s cognitive functioning: results from a national cohort. Am J public Health; 85:312-318.
Mikkila, V., Lahti-Koski, M., Pietinen, P., Virtanen, S. M., & Rimpela, M. (2003). Associates of obesity and weight dissatisfaction among Finnish adolescents. Public Health Nutrition, 6(1), 49-56.
Miller CT, Downey KT (1999). A meta-analysis of heavyweight and
self-esteem. Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 1999; 3:68–84
Mo-Suwan, L., Lebel, L., Puetpaiboon, A., & Junjana, C. (1999). School performance and weight status of children and young adolescents in a transitional society in Thailand. International Journal of Obesity, 23, 272-277.
Trost, S. G. (2007). Physical education, physical activity and academic performance. Research Brief. Active Living Research: A National Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Retrieved November 31, 2010 from: http://www.activelivingresearch.org/files/Active_Ed.pdf
Williams JD, Tremblay MS, Katzmartzyk PT (2003) Geographic and Demographic variation in the Prevalence of overweight Canadian Children and Adults. Obes Res, 11:668-673.
