Washington: Having a nice group of friends may help stem rise in obesity among children, say researchers.It is well known that friends have a significant impact on children’s behaviour like how they dress, how they wear their hair, whether they drink or smoke.
A new study has shown that friends also may influence how much adolescents eat.
"Consider a person who usually comes home alone after school and eats out of boredom," said Dr Sarah-Jeanne Salvy, assistant professor of pediatrics in the University at Buffalo’s Division of Behavioural Medicine and first author on the study.
"But on this day, she has a play date with a friend and socializes instead of eating. In this case, socializing is acting as a substitute for eating. Identifying substitutes provides a potential way to reduce behaviour.
"Our findings underscore the importance of considering the child`s social network in studying youth`s motivation to eat.
"Previous attempts to find substitutes for food and eating have not been very successful. To our knowledge, no research has studied whether social interactions can be a substitute for food in children," she added.
Salvy said that youth`s social network might be uniquely relevant and influential to eating behaviour and choice of activities.
"Peer rejection and ostracism are obvious costs imposed on social interactions. Even the unavailability of one’s peers or friends can limit youth’s access to social settings and situations,” she said.
“As a result, children may choose to engage in eating and sedentary activities when social alternatives are unavailable,” she added.
The study is published in Annals of Behavioural Medicine.
ANI
By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
Cookies Setting
By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device and the processing of information obtained via those cookies (including about your preferences, device and online activity) by us and our commercial partners to enhance site navigation, personalise ads, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. More information can be found in our Cookies and Privacy Policy. You can amend your cookie settings to reject non-essential cookies by clicking Cookie Settings below.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work or you may not be able to login.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advert as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we may not know when you have visited our site, and may not be able to monitor its performance.