Study Every 4th child feels too fat

Subjective experience? Every fourth child says I'm too fat

03/06/2013

Today, children feel young at a young age „too thick“. In any case, this was the result of a survey study carried out in Germany as a representative among children and adolescents of various types of schools. However, about two-thirds of the surveyed students also stated, „my weight is just right“.

25 percent of children say they are overweight
Every fourth child in Germany says „I am too fat!“. One in three children also said they had already tried to reduce body weight with a diet. This was the result of a study presented on behalf of the building societies of the LBS West Group today in Berlin on Wednesday. For the representative survey as part of the „LBS Children's Barometer“ According to authors, around 10,000 boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 14 were interviewed.

The results in detail: Two thirds of the children said, „My weight is just right“. Eight percent of the students said, „I feel too thin“. An evaluation of the extent to which objectivity and subjective impression agree did not take place during the course of the study. „The actual weight of the respondents was deliberately not queried“, As a spokesman for LBS said.

Every 20th child under the age of 14 has ever considered having liposuction performed. „If children see such a radical move as the only way to feel comfortable in their skin, that is more than alarming. The satisfaction with the own body influences the well-being of the children in all areas of life“, reports one of the authors, Christian Schröder.

Most children actively participate in sports
Other polling points were exercise and healthy nutrition. About 75 percent of nine to eleven-year-olds do sports several times a week. Another 14 percent of respondents did sports activities at least once a week. The most popular were cycling or skating. Four out of five children interviewed do sports in a club. 71 percent of children feel good or very good in their family. Nine percent of the children also said that they do not feel well in the family. After being protected from violence, drugs and the right to play, many children say in fourth place that contact with parents is one of the most important children's rights.

After protection against violence and drugs as well as the right to undisturbed play, the contact with both parents is named fourth of the most important children's rights.

Since assuming office, Federal Minister of Family Affairs Kristina Schröder (CDU) is patron of the Children's Barometer. Since 1997, every two years, up to 10,000 children between the ages of 9 and 11 are regularly asked about social issues, leisure activities, family, school, living environment and political events. Survey researchers use questionnaires to visit all types of school children in grades 4, 5, 6 and 7. (sb)

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Image: Thommy Weiss