Course Project Task III/Developing a Research Question

Research Topic

Latrice Jones

Argosy University

Research

Introduction

The topic that I would choose for research is, analyzing the main causes of obesity in America among children. Obesity refers to a situation where an individual is overweight as a result of the accumulation of extra and unwanted body fat (Aznar, Pigeot, & Ahrens, 2011). Although genetic factors may have an impact on obesity, behavioral factors are the main causes of obesity. Obesity poses a major problem among the young generation in that it tends to cause diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and sleep apnea among others. It would thus be important to research on the main causes of obesity among the young generation in America so that necessary measures can be taken to curtail it.

Educational significance of your topic

Studying the main causes of obesity will assist in getting a better understanding of the main problem as well as the measures that need to be taken to prevent obesity.

Background / Need for the Study

About a third of the children in the United States are obese or overweight, and the number is continuously increasing. Even though the children have less weight-related medical and health problems as compared to the adults, the children who are overweight are usually at a high risk of becoming overweight during their adolescent and at adulthood, and this makes them be prone to many chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. They are also likely to develop a low self-esteem, stress and live a sad life.

Even though in some cases weight problems run in the family as a result of the genetics, not all the children who have a family history of obesity are likely to be overweight. The children whose family members are overweight have higher chances of being overweight themselves, but this has a direct relationship with the behaviors that are shared in a family such as the activities that they are involved in and their eating habits. The diet of a child and their level of activity play a very crucial role in the determination of their weight. In the modern society, most of the children are inactive where many children spend a lot of hours watching the television and playing video and computer games which puts them at a risk of obesity (Cameron, Norgan, & Ellison, 2006).

Reason for interest in this topic

The reason why I am interested in the topic is that I have personally been a victim of bullying and teasing at school due to my weight. The number of children in the United States with obesity has increased three times since the 1970s. In the present, about 1in every five children who are school-aged (6-19 years) have obesity. Many of these children suffer from bullying and being teased more than their normal-weight peers in school. They are hence likely to suffer from depression, social isolation and also a lower self-esteem. Studying of this topic will thus greatly aid in avoiding helping the children who are obese together with their families to take up measures of solving the issue so that they can develop a high self-esteem and also avoid suffering from harassment by other students who bully and tease them due to their weight.

Specific aspects of the topic you would like to pursue:

The specific aspects of the topic that I would like to pursue include; causes of obesity, the diseases that obese children are at risk for, how to know whether a child is overweight, how to help an overweight child to manage their weight and also how I can involve my family in healthy habits.

References

Aznar, L., Pigeot, I. & Ahrens, W. (2011). Epidemiology of obesity in children and adolescents: prevalence and etiology. New York: Springer.

Cameron, N., Norgan, N. & Ellison, G. (2006). Childhood obesity: contemporary issues. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis.