| | |
| |
|      |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Articles Archive - 2009 Consume with Caution: Exploring the importance of media literacy education in the face of childhood overweight and obesity What do media literacy education and childhood overweight and obesity have in common? Good question! The truth is, more than you would think. Childhood overweight and obesity is an extremely complex issue, with many layers and implications for the health of our future generation. It is an issue that affects children everywhere in Canada across diverse populations. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, obesity rates among children and youth have nearly tripled in the last 25 years. Canada’s unhealthy excessive body weight is one of the highest in the world, with 26 per cent of our children and youth being either overweight or obese[1]. It is important to take the necessary steps now to educate and empower children and youth to take an active interest in their health and weight as obesity substantially increases the risk of developing some of the most debilitating chronic diseases, including:
In June 2009, Active Healthy Kids Canada released its fifth annual Report Card on Physical Activity Levels for Children and Youth,[3] giving Canada’s kids an "F" for physical activity. Once again, almost 90 per cent of our kids are not active enough to meet Canada’s physical activity guidelines of 90 minutes per day.[4] Additionally, seven out of 10 children aged four to eight do not eat the recommended daily minimum of five servings of vegetables and fruit and more than one third of children aged four to nine do not get the recommended two servings of milk products a day.[5] These factors are of grave concern to parents, educators and health providers, as there is a possibility that our kids may have shorter life expectancies than their parents if these trends continue. Long Live Kids Phase I and II As part of a multi-year campaign addressing childhood overweight and obesity, Concerned Children’s Advertisers (CCA) has developed a comprehensive social marketing and education campaign called Long Live Kids that explores solution-oriented strategies to help kids eat smart, move more and be media wise. During the first two phases of the campaign, CCA focused on two pillars that researchers agree play a key role in children’s healthy active living – healthy eating and active living. After considerable research, CCA produced a total of three bilingual public service messages, lesson plans for educators and tips, tools and strategies for parents and communities that promoted smart food choices and increased physical activity. CCA commissioned the Media Awareness Network (MNet) and writer Arlene Moscovitch to complete a comprehensive study that would provide some valuable insights into connections between media literacy and childhood overweight and obesity. Moscovitch entitled the research brief Reframing Obesity, which in itself has important implications for how we approach this sensitive subject. As she points out, the current thinking suggests that we no longer refer to childhood overweight and obesity as a weight issue but rather look beyond this and reframe it as a health issue.[6] Her findings suggest that all children have a place on a continuum of weight that will maximize the health benefits for them as an individual. Avoiding both extremes is important. Equally important is looking at all of the characteristics that impact children’s lives as contributing factors to their health, and media plays a huge role in how our children conduct their daily activities. What do we know about kids and media? Young people today are media savvy, spending a great deal of their time engaged in various forms of media. Screen time for our children continues to grow, with weekday averages of 5-6 hours, rising to 6-7.5 hours per day on the weekends.[7] And many kids are multi-tasking, using various forms of media at the same time. MNet reports that on an average weekday, our kids spend:
Additionally, nearly 65 per cent of teens who use the Internet are actively creating content.[9] The impact of media use on health Given that today’s children are spending so many hours engaging with various media, it’s not surprising that they tend to model themselves on what they see, hear and interpret through these experiences. Both boys and girls experience issues related to self esteem and body image but they differ in both how they manifest these differences and in how we as caregivers need to address them. Girls between the ages of nine and twelve are particularly impacted. During this time they’re approaching puberty and undergoing a variety of changes to their physical, emotional, social and intellectual health. Up until this age, they are still engaging in physical activity for fun. As they enter adolescence, they claim to exercise to lose weight. Sadly, a Nova Scotia study showed almost 40 per cent of children who diet do so as a result of teasing by peers and pressure from parents.[10] Moscovitch reports that girls are especially subject to an appearance culture promoted by media and peer influences.[11] Models, actresses, sports stars, dolls, television personalities, etc. set the standards for aspiring young dreamers. Children identify with these role models and many of them feel they don’t measure up in terms of how they look. In many cases, the self esteem of these youngsters takes a direct hit and may lead to unhealthy behaviours in search of the perfect body. Research supports a correlation between weight gain and media use, particularly in terms of how much media our kids consume.[12] Essentially, kids need to balance their leisure time between active and passive pursuits. When children increase their sedentary behaviours in passive modes and decrease their activity levels, the balance is skewed and calories consumed are not being spent, resulting in overweight and obesity. Some evidence suggests that children who eat while engaging in media have a lower metabolic rate than usual. There is also evidence suggesting that children who eat while engaging in many forms of media eat more because their focus is on the screen rather than the amount of food they consume.[13] The importance of media literacy education Research suggests that "interventions aimed at decreasing kids’ media use and increasing their critical viewing skills through media literacy may be effective in reducing the incidence of obesity and eating disorders in youth."[14] These interventions tend to break down into two categories, Moscovitch explains; those that deal with food and nutrition and those that deal with body image and self-esteem. Children who learn how to analyze, construct and deconstruct media messages, including advertising, gain important knowledge to encourage them to ask questions and use critical thinking skills to make informed choices. Long Live Kids Phase III In her report, Moscovitch explains that the most effective media literacy education initiatives had the following characteristics:
With this in mind, CCA is involving children and youth in the development of Phase III of Long Live Kids with the hope to encourage children from coast to coast to stir their social conscience and be part of a social revolution. Additionally, CCA will produce support materials for educators, parents and communities. By taking the time to learn all we can about our children and youth, in terms of their eating habits, physical activity habits and media habits, we can tap into valuable avenues to promote critical thinking skills that will enable them to make healthy choices. Teaching our kids to understand, interpret and use media as a vehicle to improve their health just makes good sense. For more information on CCA, or to access their materials or book a workshop, please visit www.cca-kids.ca.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Contact Us | Privacy Statement |
|
|||||||
