The Socio-cultural Context for Obesity Prevention and Treatment in Children and Adolescents: Influences of Ethnicity and Gender

Abstract

Obesity prevention and treatment programs in children and adolescents attempt to establish and reinforce eating and physical activity behaviors that foster healthy growth and development for both physical and mental health (1, 2). Long-term effectiveness requires that contextual influences on food and eating, and physical activity and sedentary behavior, in the child’s immediate and surrounding environments be recognized and, where possible, accounted for in interventions. These influences include behaviors of family caregivers, school personnel, and day care providers. Particularly for younger children, these caregivers make decisions about what foods and physical activity options are available to children and which behaviors are encouraged, discouraged, allowed, modeled, or restricted. Eating and physical activity behaviors are strongly influenced by socio-cultural variables (i.e., norms, values, and beliefs) and social structural contexts (i.e., physical and economic characteristics, policies, and practices) in homes, neighborhoods, schools, and media environments. This chapter will consider the interactions of socio-cultural/environmental factors with race/ethnicity (referred to as “ethnicity”) and gender and will discuss their impacts on obesity risk in children. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the need to account for socio-cultural and environmental variables in efforts to improve the effectiveness of interventions.