Psychologie a její kontexty, Vol.10, No.2

DOI: 10.15452/PsyX.2019.10.0010

Zvládání předpojetí a jiných náročných situací u dětí a dospívajících s normální tělesnou hmotností a s nadváhou a obezitou

Coping with Biases and Other Difficult Situations in Children and Adolescents with Normal Body Weight, Overweight and Obesity

Hana Včelařová, Panajotis Cakirpaloglu

Předpojetí provází člověka všedními situacemi i těmi, které jsou hodnoceny jako náročné. Z hlediska intenzity vlivu jsou předsudky srovnávány s problémy, kterým čelí lidé s kognitivním nebo s fyzickým postižením. Způsoby, jakými viditelná stigmata ovlivňují vývoj a zralou podobu copingových strategií populace s nadváhou a obezitou, zatím nebyly dostatečně prozkoumány. Starší studie dokladují, že stigmatizovaná část populace užívá kompenzace a některé typické strategie zvládání, které chrání před poškozováním a vedou k dosažení psychologicky žádoucích i jiných cílů. Na tato východiska navazují současné výzkumy copingových strategií u dětí a dospívajících s normální hmotností a s nadváhou a obezitou. Studie realizované v celkovém kontextu výše uvedené problematiky jsou sice na počátku, ale přesto již přinesly v praxi využitelná zjištění a proto je vhodné v nich pokračovat.

Klíčová slova:
Copingové strategie, děti a dospívající, nadváha, obezita, stigma.

A preconception guides a person through everyday situations, even thouse that are judged to be more demanding and require more energy and skills to deal with them. In terms of intensity of their impacts, prejudices are compared with the problems faced by people with cognitive or physical disabilities. The ways in which visible biases affect the development and final form of the child and adolescent coping strategies have not been yet sufficiently explored. Overweight and obesity are such visible signs. Compensation and coping strategies are designed to protect against continued deterioration and to achieve psychologically desirable and other goals for the disadvantaged population. We are persuided, that (in terms of our paper) the findings of current research into coping strategies in children and adolescents with normal body weight are also important, because without this knowledge it is not possible to assess the differences of the compared population. All current studies of coping strategies in children and adolescents, that are the part of this paper, were selected with regard to the academic, social and, in some cases, to the health contexts, too. In children and adolescents with normal body weight, some authors find evidence, that the age of 9–11 years is a period of extraordinary importance in terms of coping strategies. This is particularly true in situations of academic stressors, where there is a particularly strong increase in the Active and Direct Problem Solving, and, at the same time, (in situations of social stressors), the strateg ies of the Avoidance and the Emotion control against anger decrease. Research in the on-line coping strategies in children with normal body weight in the children of 10–16 years aimed attention to the potential phasing of some classic strategies (in the context of cyberbullying). On-line interactions enabling video communication and ways of their use in children and adolescents with visible stigmata are discussed. The results also suggest, that while coping strategies in overweight and obese children and adolescents are relatively often studied in the context of family or health, the so much needed studies of academic context in these children and adolescents are rare. This deficiency is particularly noticeable for the pre-school and younger school children with overweight and obesity. The knowledge of the different way of education and of the relatively large limitation of the participation in school events due to the physical limitation in part of adolescents with extreme obesity seems to be important, too. In conclusion, despite the fact that the research in the above-mentioned (and especially academic) contexts is rather in the beginning, some specifics of coping strategies were observed in both groups of children and adolescents. As some results are already practically usable, it will be appropriate to continue in such oriented studies.

Keywords:
Coping strategies, children and adolescents, overweight, obesity, stigma.