Obesity has been referred to as a common and chronic medical condition in our society. It has been associated, directly or indirectly, with numerous medical complications. These have included increased risk of cardiovascular problems, diabetes mellitus, breast cancer, problems during pregnancy and delivery, and low back pain. Psychological complications of obesity have included emotional problems, body image disturbances, and discrimination practices. The literature has utilized numerous methods to measure body composition, particularly according to the underweight overweight continuum. However, these methods have not taken into consideration the importance of social judgement. A scale was needed to further define desirable/undesirable body composition in a way more traditional definitions have not attempted.

This study takes the form of exploratory and descriptive research in which children in middle childhoods’ experience of their obesity was explored and described. A case study research design was used in a qualitative approach and data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The data analysis spiral of Cresswell was implemented in order to facilitate the research process. Empirical findings present the experiences obese children in middle childhood undergo with regard to different areas of their development. The researcher drew upon literature relating to obesity and middle childhood development in order to analyse and verify collected data in pursuit of describing children’s experience of their obesity. Emotional hideaway amongst obese children, the role of the family in an obese child’s life and the reason why obese children make the wrong food choices are some of the topics not addressed in the limited scope of this project. The possibility of exploring these final thoughts provides opportunity for future research. / Social Work / M.Diac. (Play Therapy)

The purpose of this investigation was to identify college students' visual perceptions of obese individuals and to identify any differences that may exist due to gender or body build of the subject. The subjects who participated in this study were students randomly chosen from a beginning counseling psychology course at Ball State University. One hundred subjects volunteered to complete the necessary testing for this thesis. A cross tabulation and Chi Square analysis of gender and somatotype preference found significant differences in that female subjects chose to interact less often with endomorphs than did the male subjects. The differences between the subject's somatotype and somatotype preference were found to be insignificant. / Institute for Wellness

No description available.

This study takes the form of exploratory and descriptive research in which children in middle childhoods’ experience of their obesity was explored and described. A case study research design was used in a qualitative approach and data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The data analysis spiral of Cresswell was implemented in order to facilitate the research process. Empirical findings present the experiences obese children in middle childhood undergo with regard to different areas of their development. The researcher drew upon literature relating to obesity and middle childhood development in order to analyse and verify collected data in pursuit of describing children’s experience of their obesity. Emotional hideaway amongst obese children, the role of the family in an obese child’s life and the reason why obese children make the wrong food choices are some of the topics not addressed in the limited scope of this project. The possibility of exploring these final thoughts provides opportunity for future research. / Social Work / M.Diac. (Play Therapy)

by Wong Wing Ki, Winnie. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-55). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.v / CHAPTER / Chapter 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- METHOD --- p.16 / Chapter 3 --- RESULTS --- p.23 / Chapter 4 --- DISCUSSION --- p.39 / REFERENCES --- p.47 / APPENDICES --- p.56

No description available.

This study of 449 newspaper articles from South Africa from 1997 provides an analysis of the representations of obesity evinced in the corpus. The research argues that obesity is overwhelmingly framed as being diseased and that there are four main refrains within this frame, namely, statistics on obesity, the naturalisation of negative assumptions about fat, the social dysfunction of fat and the use of crisis metaphors to describe fatness. This framing lends itself to representations of obesity which are raced, gendered and classed. Fat bodies are portrayed as being in deficit and fat people as lacking agency. The disproportional focus on black bodies in the corpus can be attributed to assumptions of ‘incivility’ which are premised on racial stereotypes which construct black people as being unintelligent, irrational, lacking agency and being largely dependent on others to survive. This disproportional focus on black bodies can also be understood in the context of emerging markets. This study argues that the medicalisation of obesity has contributed to many oversimplifications and contradictions in the representation of obesity in the corpus, which seem to go unquestioned, such as the conflation of weight and health, something I argue is one of the main contributors to the negative consequences of the dominant framing of obesity. Framing obesity as medicalised also promotes fat shaming and acts as a form of social control which maintains existing power relations through the use of discursive practices for the identification and control of deviants. These representations are problematic chiefly because they promote the dehumanisation of fat people, but also because that they do not promote good health as they claim to do.