Free trade agreements and world obesity

We study the causal link between trade openness via free trade agreements (FTAs) and obesity rates. When applying a difference-in-differences approach by exploiting the year a country entered a free trade agreement with the United States during the period 1990–2016. We find a positive and causal impact of FTAs on obesity rates, which are statistically and economically significant. We show that our findings are robust to placebo tests, the use of synthetic control methods, and a maximized sample. Furthermore, we show that when using an event studies approach the equal trends assumption holds.     

Changing Childhoods: Javanese Village Children in Three Generations

This paper explores changes in rural Javanese childhoods over three generations. A combination of historical ethnography and comparison of children's time‐budgets, based on three periods of field research, allows us to trace how the experience of childhood has changed in the Javanese village of Kali Loro, from the 1930s to the early twenty‐first century. We pay particular attention to the ongoing process of prolongation of childhood and adolescence through changes in education, marriage, children's work and young lifestyles. For the grandparents and parents of today's children, working, and earning money, outside school hours was a part of normal life for both boys and girls. While children's need for money has grown with changing lifestyles in the intervening decades, work outside the home, and particularly work that earns money, is no longer a significant part of childrens' experience. This puts today's children in a condition of greater dependence on parents, elder siblings or other relatives for access to cash, bringing new tensions into intergenerational relations.     

Factors influencing unhealthy eating behaviour in US adolescents

This research explores the simultaneous effects of key variables on unhealthy eating behaviour. Specifically, this study focuses on the relative effects of advertising, parental and peer influence, and self‐efficacy on the unhealthy eating behaviour of US adolescents. The results suggest that: (1) parental influence, peer influence and self‐efficacy significantly predict unhealthy eating behaviour; (2) self‐efficacy is the strongest predictor of unhealthy eating behaviour; and (3) advertising effects are largely neutralized by parental influence, peer influence and self‐efficacy.     

Food environment and weight outcomes: a stochastic frontier approach

Food environment includes supermarkets, restaurants, warehouse clubs and supercentres and other food outlets. As such, it can affect weight outcomes through healthy food-access cost and availability, which in turn shape eating styles and habits. This article evaluates the impact of food environment on weight outcomes through a stochastic frontier approach (SFA) that comprehensively includes various components of the food environment. The model is estimated using body mass indexes (BMIs) as the dependent variable and demographics and food environment data from New England counties as explanatory variables. Empirical results indicate that supercentres and limited service restaurants are positively associated with weight gain, while full service restaurants are negatively associated with BMIs. In metropolitan counties, the presence of full and limited service restaurants has a significant impact on BMIs; in non-metropolitan counties, these establishments do not, except in those adjacent to metropolitan areas. Empirical results also validate SFA is a more appropriate specification than the standard linear model. In addition, SFA allows us to rank counties and identify targets for effective policy interventions. An ordered logit model of weight status is estimated with the same explanatory variables, confirming that the directions of the effects of the food environment components are similar.     

‘Being on the move’: Time-spatial organisation and mobility in a mobile preschool

The mobile preschool, a form of preschool practice in a bus, is a new and growing phenomenon in Swedish preschool education. Combining theories of time-spatial organisation and mobility, we critically investigate the implications of transforming traditional stationary preschool practice into a mobile preschool. Our findings show that the social order of the mobile preschool is ‘being on the move’ and that the travelling shapes the time-spatial organisation, with major implications for daily routines and activities. In our analyses we show how constant travelling characterises the mobile preschool as a social practice with (i) logistics and choice of place prevailing over daily planning, (ii) creation of time and space for embodied habits, (iii) teachers as attendants and children as passengers, and (iv) walking in lines. However, mobility and time-spatial constraints are also co-constructed and intimately connected with the participants’ agency, since both children and teachers are actively ‘doing time’ and ‘creating space’ within the dominant structure of ‘being on the move’.     

On the effect of obesity on employment in the presence of observed and unobserved confounding

The aim of this paper was to estimate the effect of obesity on the employment probability for Italian men and women accounting for both observed and unobserved confounding. We use microdata collected by the Italian National Statistical Office for the year 2009 during a multi‐scope survey of Italian households. The employment–obesity relationship is estimated after controlling for observed confounding by using probit regression and a propensity score weighting approach. To control for both observed and unobserved confounding (endogeneity), a semiparametric recursive bivariate probit model is employed instead. Our findings suggest that obesity has a significant negative effect on the employment probability and that endogeneity might not be an important issue.     

The stigma of obesity and discrimination in performance appraisal: a theoretical model

We propose a theoretical model to study the effect of obesity stigma on performance appraisal. The model draws from the appraisal, obesity, stigmatization, and prejudice literatures to examine three sets of factors: individual factors in the appraiser(s) and the obese appraisee; factors in performance appraisal; and contextual factors. According to the model, these factors make it easier or harder for obesity stigma to affect the performance appraisal of obese employees, potentially biasing the process and resulting in discrimination. While examining the interplay of forces that facilitate or inhibit the expression of obesity stigma in the affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses of appraisers, we introduce the concept of ‘aversive weightism’. This concept enhances understanding of the tensions between the ethos of objectivity in performance appraisal and the deeply rooted, often unconscious influences of societal prejudice and stigma against obesity. We conclude with implications for research and practice.     

Reexamining the significance of childhood recreation patterns on adult leisure behavior

This study is the examination of the impact of childhood participation levels in outdoor recreation on the activity level of that individual as an adult. The study is based on a stratified random sample of adult residents in eight northeastern Iowa counties. Forty‐five outdoor recreation activities were used to determine the “carry‐over” of participation from childhood to adulthood. The results indicate a direct effect of the childhood level of participation on adult level of participation. Only eight of forty‐five activities seem to carry over; therefore, prediction of specific activity carryover is very limited. Implications for educating for leisure and aspects of socialization are discussed.     

An analysis of stratagems to reduce drowning deaths of young children in private swimming pools and spas in Victoria,Australia

This population-based retrospective case series study examined the frequency and distribution of protective stratagems (legislatively compliant safety barrier, adequate caregiver supervision, water familiarisation and early administration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR]) amongst drowning deaths of young children (0–4 years) in private swimming pools or spas in Victoria, Australia. In 65.0% (52/80) of deaths, none of the four protective stratagems were known to be present and there was only one case where all four were known to be present. This indicates that if the presence of all four stratagems is increased, this may reduce drowning in this age group and setting. While these results are positive, further examination of the presence and interaction of these stratagems for effectiveness is required. Further research is also warranted to explore the impact of enforcement of pool fencing legislation and potential associations between water familiarisation and drowning risk. In addition, a consensus on the definition of adequate supervision in needed.