The writer conducted a literature review to identify the studies that were related to my

research on the impact of parental behaviors to the children and childhood obesity. The writer

utilized databases such as a Cumulative index to nursing and allied health literature, PubMed and

Medline where she searched for terms such as obesity, body mass index, parenting, childhood

obesity among other words. Therefore, her primary purpose was to identify what role did parent

play in contributing to childhood obesity and what could they do to manage it. Through the

search, she was able to locate ten evidence-based articles that were related to childhood obesity

but only three that meet my search topic on childhood obesity and the parent’s role. On the other

hand, the validity of external research involves generalizing the study to a specific population.

For example, the writer's research will generalize parents of obese children and the role they play

regarding their children’s weight. Also, internal validity involves the effectiveness of the

methods used for the study. Overall, the writer will categorize her articles regarding non-random

control trials, random clinical trials and at the same time use the true experiment which is the

highest internal validity.

The three articles are as follows:

Article One

The first article is an article by Morawska and West (2013) that evaluated whether

parents were using effective parenting strategies that reduce the risk of childhood obesity. The

article obtained ethical clearance from the University of Queensland and the National Health and

the Medical Research Council guidelines. The rules set for the research were that both healthy

target child and obese should be between four to eleven years and parents were required to

describe their child’s body size as healthy adequately, the medication status that is they were

expected to be under no medication that could affect their growth, and disability status if any. On
the other hand, parents who had healthy kids were more cautious on a diet and the physical

activities that their children involved themselves in. Overall, obese parents had a higher

probability of their children being with behavior problems, unhealthy feeding and peer problems

(Morawska & West, 2012

Strength

The article designed that is a cross-sectional study is a significant strength because the

writers were able to identify the relationship between ineffective parenting and childhood obesity

where the researchers used various divisions of child and family functioning (Morawska and

West 2013). The problem that guides this article was that overweight and obesity in children had

become a vital issue where more than a third out of the total children were identified as obese.

The article is a level five based on the evidence levels according to QSEN.

Limitation

Besides, the article has focused on sixty-two families with an overweight child aged

between four to eleven years, and they were matched with sixty-two healthy who had a healthy

weight child. The target population is a large population that may affect the generalization of the

findings. The researchers used research tools such as mobile phones and questionnaires to

interview the participant thus determining their eligibility. Another limitation is that the

researchers interviewed parents with obese children who did not see the need for visiting a

practitioner thus affecting the researchers in generalizing their findings.

Article Two

The second article was an article by Small, Vaughan, Melnyk, and McBurnett (2013) that

focused on whether parents were using portion control when feeding their children. The article
identified that children between the age of three to five years faced physical and behavioral

changes due to the amount of food they took. The primary purpose of the article was to identify

the effects of different food portions to the children, and the importance of educating the parents

on the portion to feed their children.

Strength

The article is significant to my study because it has been able to recognize that many

parents overfed their children and thus resulting in weight-related problems and at times the

issues resulted in obesity (Small, Vaughan, Melnyk &McBurnett, 2013). Also, the article used a

comprehensive literature search where database such as MESH Headings and keywords were

used. The article used a systematic review where nine studies were identified to have met the

inclusion criteria, and portion-manipulation interventions were implemented. The article is

entirely nursing research since most of the authors are nurses and the topic has dealt with nursing

to education. The QSEN level of evidence for this article was a level one which is the highest

quality of evidence. Overall, a significant strength in this article is that there is no level of

measures in this article compared to the previous article because the article only includes various

studies and reviews thus making the article to be a combined study.

Limitation

Time was a limiting factor because the researchers were not able to research more on

articles that could entail food portion and childhood obesity.

Article Three

The final article is an article by Riesh, Lyles, Brown, Perez, Kotula, and Sass-DeRuyter

(2013) whose primary purpose was to determine the parenting style, family status and social
factors of an obese family environment. Most of the writers for this article are nurses who have

identified the need for evidence-based research thus making the article more significant for my

research. The institutional review board has ethically approved the article. The study used a

cross-sectional descriptive design where parents and children between nine and eighteen years

were studied.

Strength

The method of parental-rejection questionnaire where the method was scored using 29-

item family activity and eating habits questionnaire was a vital strength in while interviewing the

participants (Riesh et al. 2013). The study also had interval data using a weight of each study

participant. Overall, the study showed that reasonable control could improve the child’s health

status. Therefore, this study is significant to my research because it will help me identify the

parenting strategies and restrictions that may impact the child’s health status.

Limitation

The cross-sectional design was an essential limitation because it limited the writers’

ability to make any conclusions on how parenting might differ over the course of treatment for

children’s weight. Methods for data collection included parental-rejection questionnaire which is

a major strength of the article.

 
 References

Morawska, A., & West, F. (2013). Do parents of obese children use ineffective parenting

strategies? Journal of child health care: for professionals working with children in the

hospital and community, 17(4), 375.

Riesch, S. K., Lyles, A., Perez, O., Brown, R. L., Kotula, K., & Sass-DeRuyter, S. M. (2013).

Modifiable Family Factors Among Treatment-Seeking Families of Children With High

Body Mass Index: Report of a Pilot Study. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 27(4), 254-

266.

Small, L., Lane, H., Vaughan, L., Melnyk, B., & McBurnett, D. (2013). A Systematic Review of

the Evidence: The Effects of Portion Size Manipulation with Children and Portion

Education/Training Interventions on Dietary Intake with Adults. Worldviews on

Evidence‐Based Nursing, 10(2), 69-81.