Externality as a function of obesity in children: Pervasive style or eating-specific attribute?

The developmental sources of the link between stylistic externality and food-related externality found in the obese by S. Schachter and his associates (e.g., Schachter and J. Rodin, 1974) were explored by testing whether the externality phenomena that have been found to differentiate obese and normal adults are also discriminators of obese and normal children. Based on teacher ratings of obesity, 28 distinctly overweight and 28 normal weight Ss in Grades 2-5 were selected. Ss were assessed on 3 measures (a) the eating of shelled or unshelled peanuts, (b) their estimations of the length of a boring or interesting film, and (c) their rod-and-frame test-measured field dependence. Results suggest that obese children as young as 7-22 yrs of age show an external responsiveness to salient food cues but do not yet show a generally external perceptual style. (33 ref)