Problem. The paper offers findings about selected educational aspects of children’s academic performance, examined here in terms of sociodemographic variables, BMI percentile values, cognitive test ...scores, weight bias internalization scale and self concept scale with an aim to detect whether and to what extent these factors contribute to children’s school results. Methods. 557 fifth graders were administered Vana’s Intelligence Test, the Piers‑Harris 2 self‑concept questionnaire and other tools. Children’s educational aspects were assessed in terms of school Absence, Grade Point Average, and Czech and Mathematics grades, with data obtained from their most recent report cards under the Informed consent of their legal representatives and in compliance with ethical standards. Results. Prepubescent children from stronger socio‑economic backgrounds suffer from overweight/obesity less often and perform slightly better at school. The present results suggest a link between weight bias internalization and overweight/obesity, and a somewhat weaker link between self‑concept and overweight/obesity in the non‑clinical population of prepubescent children. In these relationships of overweight/obese children, as in the cases of alarmingly high school absence, gender is an important variable. Multinomial logistic regression modelling the relationship between Czech and Mathematics grades and selected factors discovered that chances for a worse grade were significantly reduced by the results of Vana’s Intelligence Test in both the subjects, while the Self‑concept total score proved to be an insignificant factor. Conversely, pupils’ Czech grades were negatively influenced by increased BMI (quartile), higher Absence rate, male Gender, Presence of only one parent in the family and WBI, while in Mathematics, in addition to the above discussed, significant regressors only included Absence and Presence of only one parent. Discussions. The results of the Self‑concept total score, the level of which is generally lower in girls than in boys in the population of Czech prepubescent children, agree with other authors’ experience. The connection between the male sex and poorer performance in Czech can be partly explained by the fact that the development of speech, reading, writing and grammar is generally less complicated for school‑age girls than boys. We can ask why a higher BMI quartile increases the chances of a worse grade only in the case of Czech language? So far, we can only speculate about the causes. In our opinion, it is possible that the impact of parents’ education on the performance of children of this age is more pronounced in the Czech language (compared to Mathematics). The other possibility of the impact of the BMI quartile on the Czech grade is the significant predominance of boys in the o/o group. On the other hand, it should be noted that this argument would not explain the o/o children’s poorer Grade Point Average score. However, we believe that the above reasons answer partially this question. Conclusion. The vulnerability of o/o girls is pronounced in some domains of Selfconcept and Weight bias internalization, while in boys it is reflected in the more frequent occurrence of high levels of Absenteeism, with the precise causes of this being still subject to speculation. In this regard, workers in the cooperating professions should pay continuous attention to strengthening the desirable aspects of education and healthy lifestyle among vulnerable groups of children. Educational aspects of overweight/obese children should therefore continue to receive increased attention.
Objectives. Excess weight and obesity in children are associated with psychosocial complications and have the attributes of psychosomatic illness. The research followed on from Czech and foreign ...publications about families with overweight and obese children, about the peculiarities of cognitive and social development, and about the psychosocial circumstances that accompany this section of the populace. This paper maps out the existing state of knowledge in the above areas, too. The aim of the research was to verify findings of foreign studies relating to the experiences of overweight preschool children with prejudices about themselves by their peers also among the Czech population. Similar problem was also researched in terms of performance of these children in two cognitive tests and their estimates by adults. Methods. The study compared the results of the Pre-school Children Knowledge Test and of the Urban’s Figural Test of Creative Thinking in the group of children with overweight (N=52; BMI percentile ranged 92-95; converted to BMI values M = 18.18; SD = 0.36; age 4-6; M=4.62; SD=0.49), their estimates by parents and kindergarten teachers and in the control group of children with normal weight (N=46; BMI percentile ranged 11-72; converted to BMI values M = 15.38; SD = 0.52; age 4-6; M=4.53; SD=0.58). Observation of Social Expressions of both groups of children in a free play situation was performed, too. Results of cognitive tests, estimates and observations were evaluated in the mutual context. Processing the data. We carried out a descriptive analysis of all the variables. The standard significance level used in the statistical testing was ?=0.05. Multiple linear regression was performed in the form of a so-called generalized linear model (GLM) in order to underpin the influence of the quantitative variables of social behaviour and the categorical variables of the child’s weight on the difference between the real results of the cognitive tests and the results as estimated by the children’s mothers, fathers and teachers. From the original, complete set of regressors we gradually eliminated those which proved to be statistically insignificant. Results. In terms of the level of performance of both groups of children in both cognitive tests there were found no significant differences, while observed social expressions showed the one. Estimates of the performance of both groups of children in the two sets by adults were mostly tended towards overestimation. After customizing some of these results to social variables and in terms of estimates by adults the weight band lost in some cases its importance. Conclucions. The number of child respondents was affected by real number of overweight pre-school children in the Zlín region (see Discussion). The link between children’s weight and their performance as estimated by adults may be influenced by social and possibly by other types of variables. The difference in the social behaviour of the two sets of pre-school age children may be an indication of nascent differences in their psychosocial development. Several studies have confirmed that the relationships between problems with preschool peers have tendency to repeat in older peer groups and in some cases were confirmed relations with psychiatric disorders in adulthood, too.
The authors of this study present the results of surveys in significant areas of social pedagogy relating to both the prevention of overweight and obesity in children, and healthy lifestyle ...education. The psychosocial aspects of overweight and obesity in early age and preschool children are monitored in the context of selected socio-demographic indicators in the Czech Republic, Great Britain, the USA, Australia, some European countries, Iran and China. The purpose of such oriented studies is to find appropriate preventive, pedagogical or therapeutic interventions that could contribute to the elimination of risk factors in the particular societies. It turns out that the sociodemographic and psychosocial aspects of overweight and obesity in children (in terms of particular countries) cannot be always uniformly described and defined. Numerous psychosocial or sociodemographic characteristics were found when comparing different ethnic groups, the different age cohorts of parents or the different developmental stages of children, when comparing countries with various standards of living, or even just, when comparing different socio-economic strata within the same country. It also appears that the relationships identified by the below-mentioned researches don't have a straight forward effect, but are also modified by the influence of other variables. A common feature overweight and obesity in children in the majority of countries seems to be associated with significant social inequalities within a specific country. According to some authors, one of the possible ways to fight overweight and obesity in children is to reduce the inequalities of the macroeconomic society
The authors of this study present the results of surveys in significant areas of social peda-gogy relating to both the prevention of overweight and obesity in children, and healthy lifestyle ...edu-cation. The psychosocial aspects of overweight and obesity in early age and preschool children are monitored in the context of selected socio-demographic indicators in the Czech Republic, Great Brit-ain, the USA, Australia, some European countries, Iran and China. The purpose of such oriented stud-ies is to find appropriate preventive, pedagogical or therapeutic interventions that could contribute to the elimination of risk factors in the particular societies. It turns out that the sociodemographic and psychosocial aspects of overweight and obesity in chil-dren (in terms of particular countries) cannot be always uniformly described and defined. Numerous psychosocial or sociodemographic characteristics were found when comparing different ethnic groups, the different age cohorts of parents or the different developmental stages of children, when comparing countries with various standards of living, or even just, when comparing different socio-economic strata within the same country. It also appears that the relationships identified by the be-low-mentioned researches don´t have a straight forward effect, but are also modified by the influ-ence of other variables. A common feature overweight and obesity in children in the majority of countries seems to be associated with significant social inequalities within a specific country. Accord-ing to some authors, one of the possible ways to fight overweight and obesity in children is to reduce the inequalities of the macroeconomic society
The authors of this study present the results of surveys in significant areas of social pedagogy relat-ing to both the prevention of overweight and obesity in children, and healthy lifestyle ...education. The psychosocial aspects of overweight and obesity in early age and preschool children are moni-tored in the context of selected socio-demographic indicators in the Czech Republic, Great Britain, the USA, Australia, some European countries, Iran and China. The purpose of such oriented studies is to find appropriate preventive, pedagogical or therapeutic interventions that could contribute to the elimination of risk factors in the particular societies.It turns out that the sociodemographic and psychosocial aspects of overweight and obesity in chil-dren (in terms of particular countries) cannot be always uniformly described and defined. Numer-ous psychosocial or sociodemographic characteristics were found when comparing different ethnic groups, the different age cohorts of parents or the different developmental stages of children, when comparing countries with various standards of living, or even just, when comparing different socio-economic strata within the same country. It also appears that the relationships identified by the below-mentioned researches don´t have a straight forward effect, but are also modified by the influence of other variables. A common feature overweight and obesity in children in the majority of countries seems to be associated with significant social inequalities within a specific country. Ac-cording to some authors, one of the possible ways to fight overweight and obesity in children is to reduce the inequalities of the macroeconomic society.
Autorky příspěvku seznamují s dílčími výsledky vlastní sociometricky zaměřené metody, kterou aplikovaly ve třídách druhého stupně jedné ZŠ v České republice. V příspěvku je věnována pozornost hlavně ...těm výstupům, které se vztahují ke skupince dětí s nadváhou a obezitou. Pro adolescentní děti je prostředí školy a školní třídy důležitou součástí sociální reality, která značně ovlivňuje utváření jejich sebedůvěry, sebevědomí, identity a z těchto hledisek ovlivňuje po řadu kritických let kvalitu jejich života. Některé klinicky zaměřené zahraniční publikace tuto realitu reflektují a okolnostem života dětí s nadváhou a obezitou ve školním prostředí věnují pozornost (Kiess et al., 2009; Pallan et al., 2012; Taylor et al., 2005; Skidmore, Yarnell, 2004). Vzhledem k malému počtu dětí s nadváhou a obezitou byly výsledky v diskusi a v závěrečné části příspěvku shrnuty jen popisným způsobem.
The authors of this article acquaint with the partial results of their own sociometric focused method, that they applied on the second stage of one elementary school in the Czech Republic. Attention is paid mainly to those outcomes, that relate to a group of children with overweight and obesity. For adolescent children are school environment and school classes important part of social reality, that greatly affects the formation of self-confidence, self-esteem, identity and affects many aspects of their quality of life during these crucial years. Even some clinically oriented foreign publications reflect this reality and pay attention to these circumstances of these children´s life (Kiess et al., 2009; Pallan et al., 2012; Taylor et al., 2005; Reilly et al., 2012; Skidmore, Yarnell, 2004). Taking into account the small number of this specific group, the results were summarized in the final part of article only in a descriptive way.
Včelařová H., Bendová M.
Literatura
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