Impact of Childhood Obesity
Obesity has health, social, emotional, and psychological impacts on the affected children. Obesity has caused the development of some health concerns in children that were previously just found among the adults. For instance, health issues such as Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, and elevated blood cholesterol are currently very common among the children’s population (Ogden et al., 2014). These are health issues that were common among the adult population and almost non-existent among the children.
Obesity also has some negative psychological impacts among the children such a negative body image, low-self-esteem, anxiety issues, and depression (Reilly & Kelly, 2011). The commonly desirable body standard in the society is that of a slim person. Therefore, children with excess body weight tend to go through psychological issues trying to meet the society’s standards of the acceptable body image.
These children may also go through social and emotional distress because of the higher chance of them being bullied by their peers in school. Studies have shown that children who are obese tend to undergo discrimination even in their home environment. The bullying, discrimination, and stereotyping may lead them to be emotionally distressed, which can lead to psychological problems that affect them even much later in their lives.\