PSYCH 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Michigan Educational Assessment Program, Childhood Obesity, Hypertension
Document Summary
Middle childhood, ages 7-11 is generally a happy, healthy time of life. Obesity causes more deaths worldwide than malnutrition (see visualizing. Rates have stabilized in the u. s. since 2000, but 1/3 of children are overweight & Prevalence of being overweight among 6-11 years old has increased more than. Average american child spends 3-4 hours a day watching tv. Several studies suggest a positive association between tv and obesity. Watching 1 hour of tv a day increases risk of childhood obesity by 60% (deboer et at. , 2015) Tv advertising of unhealthy foods correlates with childhood obesity -- except in nations where few children watch tv. Obese children are more likely to be obese adults. Increasing maturation results in a highly interconnected brain by age 7 or 8. Increasing myelination reduces reaction time from birth to about age 16. Selective attention - ability to concentrate on some stimuli while ignoring others -- improves markedly around age 7.
