The thrifty phenotype and fetal overnutrition hypotheses are two developmental hypotheses that originated from the "developmental origins of health and disease" (DOHaD) perspective. The DOHaD posits that exposures experienced prenatally and early in life may influence health outcomes through altering form and function of internal organs…

Although many facets of social status (i.e., socioeconomic status, gender, race) are fairly stable, limited work has assessed how youths' identification with their status changes over time. Subjective social status (SSS) refers to one's perception of standing or rank relative to others, and for youth status is generally in the context of society…

Mass media have numerous effects on children, ranging from influencing school performance to increased or reduced aggression. What we do not know, however, is how media availability in the bedroom moderates these effects. Although several researchers have suggested that bedroom media may influence outcomes by displacing other activities (the…

Childhood obesity is increasingly prevalent in Western and non-Western societies. The authors related multiple dimensions of physical self-concept to body composition for 763 Chinese children aged 8 to 15 and compared the results with Western research. Compared with Western research, gender differences favoring boys were generally much smaller for…

Exergames are videogames that require gross motor activity, thereby combining gaming with physical activity. This study examined the role of competitive versus cooperative exergame play on short-term changes in executive function skills, following a 10-week exergame training intervention. Fifty-four low-income overweight and obese African American…

A total of 254 children in kindergarten through grade 6 participated in a study of the development, consistency, and degree of bias against gender, ethnicity (French- versus English-speaking Canadian), and body type (overweight versus normal weight). Children demonstrated clear biases against groups to which they did not belong, although attitudes…

Provides a rationale for the significance of the study of early feeding and delineates major issues that require investigation. Includes a list of acquisition processes implicated in the development of food acceptance patterns. (RH)

Examined development of self-body-esteem and relation between self-esteem and body-esteem in overweight and normal weight boys and girls in three age groups. Results were interpreted in terms of age differences in subjects and possible social influences in development of self-esteem in overweight youngsters. (Author/DST)