Child Obesity and Negligence – Psychology Study Paper

The topic considered for analysis is “Child Obesity and Negligence.” The paper aims at establishing the impact of negligence on the health of children. After the study, it was established that children between the age of 2 and 17 have been worst hit by cases of obesity (PSY_635_Week_1.dox, n.d). Indeed, the occurrences of obesity among this young generation have more than doubled in the last quarter century.   An experiment has been defined as that part of the study in which factors are engineered and their impacts on other variables observed.  Inherent in the experiment are the explanatory variable(s) and the response factor (Campbell & Stanley, 2010). In the study considered, the response variable is obesity while negligence represents the explanatory variable. The null hypothesis in this study is that negligence of children aged between the age of two and seventeen years has not contributed to the high obesity cases being reported today. The alternative hypothesis observes that negligence has a significant impact on the rate of obesity cases witnessed today.

The sampling was carried out among children aged between two and seventeen years. Simple random sampling was employed during the data collection stage to avert possibilities of biases.  Time series data has been used to come up with the results presented in the study. This can be substantiated by the fact that one period data may not give out the desired results since there is no trend. The results announced must reflect the health of children over time, so that we are in a position to tell whether obesity among the young individuals has been on an upward trend, generally constant, or on a falling scale. In as far as the research design is concerned; interviews and questionnaires were administered in the study (American Psychology Association, 2012). When the randomness in sample constitution is well taken care of, questionnaires present accurate results since the researcher has already tailored the questions in such a way that they can easily be understood by the target group.

One of the statistical analyses employed in the study is proportions. The researcher sought to establish the percentage of children aged between 2-17 years suffering from obesity globally. The study shows that the proportion of children with the obesity problem all over the world stands at a whopping 17% (PSY_635_Week_1.dox., n.d). This percentage is significant. It implies that almost a fifth of the children population is overweight. The study concludes by noting that the high proportions of obese children ought to be dealt with before things get out of hand. Parents need to be concerned with the health of their children to stem this menace.

One of the threats that may have faced the validity of entire study is biased (Week_2_635_1_.pdf, n.d). This phenomenon may come by when the researcher decides to interview or observe those participants that appear friendly and leave out those that look hostile. The randomness in collection of data is thus obscured. In this study, however, this possible threat has been dealt with adequately since the simple random technique was employed. The other threat facing validity is inaccuracy of results due to generalizations. Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010 opine that the human beings tend to assume that findings derived from one population apply to all the other populations. It is important to note that Sampling has the ability to give us the wrong impression in case the groups of participants are not drawn from the right population. In this case, however, this problem has been solved since the participants have been drawn from various regions.

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