Knowledge has long been acknowledged to be crucial for economic growth and in today’s market economies this is true to an even greater extent. In the past it used to be the parent’s duty to pass on this knowledge to their children, nowadays schools and higher education institutions take this responsibility. Nevertheless, parents still have a significant influence on an individual’s educational attainment. The aim of this study is to investigate and demonstrate this parental influence on the level of education as well as the subject of higher education degree. This thesis shows that individuals whose parents have at least a bachelor’s degree and above are more likely to attain one themselves. Moreover, individuals are more likely to choose a subject for that degree that is similar to their parents’ occupation.

1 ABSTRACT The prevalence of overweight and obesity is constantly growing all over the world. Not only adults, but also children and adolescents are affected by this increase. The development of overweight or obesity in childhood represents a rather significant health risk that extends to adulthood. Both being overweight and being obese causes various secondary diseases, e.g. type II. diabetes or cardiovascular diseases. That is why the attempts to stop the increase of prevalence of overweight and obesity emerged in recent years. The attempts to stop these tendencies are aimed especially at children and adolescents, who carry the habits developed in childhood even to their adult life. In order for these attempts to be successful, one needs to have at their disposal information about the contemporary status and factors, which influence the development of overweight and obesity. The primary prevention ought to be concentrating on these factors. The survey, which was created in the questionnaire form, was conducted in primary schools and on the lower grade of grammar schools in Prague and its surroundings. 1897 questionnaires were distributed throughout the whole year; 366 were given back and out of these 225 questionnaires belong to girls and 141 to boys. This thesis focuses on the issues of the diatery,...