Adolescent Medicine & Child Psychology

Biography

Biography: Jessica Mikeska

Abstract

Abstract

Statement of the Problem: Evidence indicates that obese children who become obese adults are more at risk for preventable diseases than children developing into adults of normal weight. And while prior research indicates marketing impacts child obesity, It is an important issue worldwide that the mental health of children and adolescents. It is very important for children to learn adaptive emotion regulation strategies because the emotion dysregulation is risk factor for depression and anxiety disorders. However, in Japan, there is no scale that assesses the emotion regulation of children, so that the research progress of depression and anxiety disorders has been delayed. Therefore, the present research is aimed at the developing the Japanese version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents and investigate its reliability and validity. Adolescents the age 15-18 participate the survey and rate the Japanese version of ERQ-CA, emotion regulation behavior scale, Trait Anxiety subscale of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form X and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. In near future, we will conduct the survey for children the age 8-15 and complete the examination of reliability and validity of the Japanese version of ERQ-CA. It is a principal issue worldwide that the mental health of children and adolescents. It is very important for children to learn adaptive emotion regulation strategies because the emotion dysregulation is risk factor for depression and anxiety disorders. However, in Japan, there is no scale that assesses the emotion regulation of children, so that the research progress of depression and anxiety disorders has been delayed. Therefore, the present research is aimed at the developing the Japanese version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents and investigate its reliability and validity. Adolescents the age 15-18 participate the survey and rate the Japanese version of ERQ-CA, emotion regulation behavior scale, Trait Anxiety subscale of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form X and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. In near future, we will conduct the survey for children the age 8-15 and complete the examination of reliability and validity of the Japanese version of ERQ-CA. Many such studies measure marketing as mere media exposure or snacking. The purpose of this study is to generate greater understanding of the relationship between child obesity and marketing by a) exploring direct measures of marketing’s influences to b) compare the degree to which these and other hereditary factors explain differences in obesity rates among children and parents.

Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Data include responses from 7th and 10th grade students, as well as their parents, regarding eating patterns and social influences on nutrition decisions. Across 13 Nebraska, USA and South Carolina, USA urban and rural schools, a response rate of 32% allowed a dataset of 332 completed and merged student-parent surveys, including watching advertisement (thus inactivity) and snacking on youth-targeted junk food serving as appropriate proxies for marketing influence.

Findings: While modeling BMI differences as being confounded by marketing influences allowed for stronger prediction of a continuous measure of BMI than the grouping variable, main analyses did not reveal snacking and advertising/inactivity as significant confounds to the group-BMI relationship. Yet, a post-hoc test using a dichotomous measure of BMI indicates that advertising/inactivity, snacking, and parent BMI are significant confounds and, thus, predict differences between obese and nonobese children beyond the grouping variable, but with parent BMI serving as the larger confound. Conclusion & Significance:  Heredity explains why some children are obese to a larger degree than marketing. Implications for parent consumption derived from socialization literature streams are offered.