Fat Kids Can T Do Math: Article Analysis

At an early age, children begin to figure out how they should look and act when it comes to their body type. An article “Fat Kids Can’t Do Math: Negative Body Weight Stereotyping and Associations with Academic Competence and Participation in School Activities Among Primary School Children” was written in The Open Education Journal, by Bronwyn Chalker and Jennifer A. O’Dea. They are credible authors to speak about children and psychology because they are Faculty of Education and Social Work department at the University of Sydney in Australia. They did a study of children between the ages eight to ten years old that consisted of six boys and nine girls. The study was about how the children are dissatisfied with their body type. “The children …show more content…
“The size of a child’s body did not impact the way that they thought of themselves” ( Chalker and O’Dea 76). “The supporting evidence that the authors found to back up their findings was by having the students do a one on one interview; the results from the interviews were analyzed by both authors independently” ( Chalker and O’Dea 76). The following are just some of the things they found; “thin children have many friends, they are popular, nice, happy, confident, best at sports, dancing, do not seem to eat much and also can be sad and shy because of their small size. Fat children are considered good at video games, not good at school work, not nice, mean and bullies, do not have many friends, are not popular, best at acting in a play and can also be sad because of their big size. People do not want to be friends with a fat child” (Chalker and O’Dea 73,74,75). “To make children of all sizes feel good about themselves the author’s suggest that there be non-competitive activities so that more children will participate and be confident with their body image” (Chalker and O’Dea