Effect of television advertisements for foods on food consumption in children Essay

Effect of television advertisements for foods on food consumption in children Introduction Question 1 Â   Â   Â   Â  This research describes a research that is both qualitative and quantitative. To start with, the research can be said to use quantitative research method because it employs the use of the top down scientific method of research. Throughout the research, the researchers make use of quantitative data that involves the analysis of a number of variables like the preference of certain foods by some children and attraction to certain advertisements by some children. Moreover, the research uses quantitative research which involves the use of data that can be measured. For example, the number of children who took certain types of foods and the number of adverts that every child was shown. The main use of quantitative data in the research is to understand the behavior patterns of the children. Question 2 Â   Â   Â   Â  This research summary describes cross-sectional study which is also referred to as prevalence. This is because the research involves collecting data from a number of students who represent a large population. The study applied in the research summary is mainly descriptive and uses a small sample of students from a larger children population in England. In addition, the research summary describes cross sectional study because the findings can be used to describe the prevalence risk ratio of the concerned population. Question 3 Â   Â   Â   Â  The research summary is full of evidence to indicate that the researchers concerned did everything possible to ensure that the exercise was carried out ethically. The first evidence of attention to ethics was to inquire from the children involved whether they wished to take part in the exercise. This is important because nobody should be coerced into taking part in any study. Moreover, the researchers involved made sure that the advertisements that were used in the study were sourced from children and family programming. This is important because it ensured that the adverts did not contain any explicit contents. Question 4 Â   Â   Â   Â  The type of experiment contained in the research summary is a quasi-experiment. This is because all the independent variables used in the experiment like the age of the children, their gender and body mass index are things that already exist in the sample population. Unlike in a true experiment where people are assigned to different condition, all the children involved in the study were assigned to the same conditions. Question 5 Â   Â   Â   Â  Some of the variables that the experimenters considered were the weight of the children, exposure to TV food adverts, different types of foods and the amount of foods consumed by each child. The independent variable used in the experiment is the amount of food given to the children and the food adverts they were exposed to. The dependent variables that were used in this research were the effect of food adverts on the amount of food consumed by each child and relationship between the weight of a child and his/her ability to recognize food adverts. Question 6 Â   Â   Â   Â  The main reason why the researchers used commercials of non- food product was to see whether the children would remember the adverts that they had seen in general. The main role of non-food commercials was to test whether they would attract the attention of the children the same way with food adverts. Question 7 Â   Â   Â   Â  The conclusion at the end of the research summary suggests that there is a correlation between viewing TV and childhood obesity. This means that there exists a relationship between viewing too much TV and increased food intake. However, it is worthy noting that the relationship between the two is mutual or complementary. Question 8 Â   Â   Â   Â  There are two things that i would do differently if I were conducting this experiment. To begin with, I take into consideration the rate of physical activity in every child. This is because they extra calories consumed by each child could be used due to physical activity therefore reducing the probability of obesity. Secondly, I would consider factors that may lead to excessive viewing of TV like limited parental involvement and lenient parental rules. Reference Halford, J. C. G., Gillespie, J., Brown, V., Pontin, E. E., & Dovey, T. M. Effect of television advertisements for foods on food consumption in children, 2004. Print Source document