Many of the lifestyle habits that children
and adolescents develop—eating a diet high in fat and
low in fruits and vegetables, being physically inactive or sedentary,
and experimenting with tobacco and alcohol use—can have
a major impact on their health later in life. Given that, psychologists
with expertise in children’s health and behavior should
be taking more of a lead role in helping young people develop
good lifestyle habits early on and preventing these problems
from occurring, says a researcher from Georgetown University
Medical Center.
The scope of what child health psychologists can contribute
to the health and well-being of children in our society is
much broader than many have yet recognized, says Kenneth Tercyak,
PhD, assistant professor of oncology and pediatrics and member
of the Cancer Control Program at Georgetown’s Lombardi
Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Among the leading causes of death in the United States are
heart disease, cancer and diabetes, but actual causes of death—which
are defined as lifestyle and behavioral factors such as smoking
and physical inactivity—contribute to this nation’s
leading killers Tercyak says.
“That means the choices that children and teenagers
make early in life, and the activities that they engage in,
can have serious implications for their physical health and
well-being when they grow up,” he says. “Because
these health-compromising behaviors are typically initiated
when a person is young, there is a need to more effectively
prevent their onset and reform public health approaches to
prevention. That is where child health psychologists can help.”
“There is a pressing need to readdress prevention efforts
targeted toward our nation’s young people and their
families, and child health psychologists are well-poised to
advance this mission,” says Tercyak, who authored an
editorial on the subject published in the September 24 issue
of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
“Specialists in childhood behavior have a lot of good
expertise that should now be employed to play a greater role
in disease prevention,” he says.
Many fields in and outside of public health have designed
lifestyle and behavioral prevention programs, Tercyak says,
but too few have been aimed at youngsters or fully taken into
perspective the psychology of children.
“Increasingly, the energy in public health is being
focused on the lives of children because we know these lifestyle
habits form early and may carry forward into adulthood. Child
health psychologists and other advocates for children’s
health need to be more involved at all levels of prevention
research, applied work, and policy making in helping young
people adopt good self-care,” he says.
