The document summarizes a scientific study that tested the effects of a behavioral learning model on promoting healthy behaviors among obese adolescents. The study involved nutrition education, monitored exercise, and behavioral training sessions over 6 months. It found decreases in weight, BMI, fat mass and waist measurements along with increased exercise among participants. However, the behavioral model has limitations and can be improved by addressing environmental factors like family influences. Combining behavioral and cognitive approaches, and involving parents, can make interventions more effective by changing problematic behaviors and their underlying causes.

1. Dario Diaz
Individual Research Paper
+Dario Diaz
Maxwell / Jakubowski
9/15/2015
Research Paper Source Citation
Individual Resource Paper
Nutrition intervention can be done a variety of ways ranging from the cognitive
perspective which focusses on the thought processes behind actions to the behavioral perspective
which instead fixates on the rewards or consequences of following or disregarding goals for
these intended actions; while models for intervention can vary, most experiments tend more
towards a specific behavioral model. Through the analysis of a scientific study conducted by Yi
Ning et al. of the effects of a behavioral learning model used to teach and promote healthy
eating, exercise, and other behavioral habits amongst obese adolescents, one may better assess
just how effective such a model can be as well as which changes, if any, should be made.
Ning’s study consisted of a multifaceted approach which would teach the adolescents
observed through nutrition education seminars, monitored exercise regiments, and behavioral
training sessions.1 Observing adolescents aged 11 to 18 all at or above the 95th percentile for
their age in terms of BMI according to the 2000 CDC growth charts, the adolescents observed
were initially analyzed for their nutritional intake in the form of 48 hour recalls used to calculate
caloric intake, activity through activity recall logs calculated in MET hours per week, as well as
for anthropomorphic data including weight, BMI, fat mass, fat free mass, and waist measurement
and repeated these same measurements when the six month duration of the experiment came to a
close observing any differences.1 Behavioral counseling was done in the same form as the
nutrition education presentations in 30 minute sessions which would alternate between behavior
and nutrition centered lessons and were held every two weeks.1 By contrast, the exercise portion
consisted of 60 minute session three times a week for the initial 12 weeks and then continued in

2. Dario Diaz
Individual Research Paper
the form of biweekly classes thereafter; all exercise routines were supervised.1 While
descriptions about the behavioral learning method employed were brief, Ning et al.’s work
claimed to place less emphasis on setting milestones as to caloric restriction, but rather stressed
the importance of avoiding problematic behaviors such as grazing or eating hurriedly.1 Being a
behavioral model, this counseling may have included some form of reward or consequence
depending on the subject’s compliance to certain standards. The initial averages of the group
observed amounted to 240 MET hours per week and 2020 consumed calories per day;
conversely, the measurements at the end of the experiment showed a n average of 262 MET
groups per week and 1595 calories consumed per day.1 Moreover, the adolescents showed an
average decrease in weight of 3.6 kg and BMI of 1.5 for boys and a decrease of 5.6 kg and BMI
of 1.9 for girls as well as decreases in fat mass and waist measurements along with an increase in
fat free mass for both groups.1
While the experiment performed was successful, a closer analysis of the psychology
behind the behavioral learning theory can better elaborate upon the defining characteristics,
advantages, and potential flaws of this model. Walter Burnait et al.’s book on the concerns ad
possible initiatives to prevent adolescent obesity focuses in part on the various learning models
employed to counteract this issue; one of which includes the behavioral model.2 The book
describes the behavioral model as the oldest known, albeit least effective, intervention method
used to combat obesity and claims that the best way to make up for the method’s inherent
disadvantage is by focusing on the eating environment and how this contributes to a lack of
control.2 He continues to explain how the family of the child or adolescent may unconsciously be
being rewarded for certain harmful eating behaviors while the parents may be unaware that they
are bestowing such rewards.2 As a cited 1983 study by Brownell et al. demonstrated, a child

3. Dario Diaz
Individual Research Paper
taught to avoid problematic eating behaviors by behavioral methods when his mother was
educated separately exhibited a more substantial change in behavior than when the child was the
only one being taught or when the mother and child were taught together.2 A similar 1990 study
conducted by Epstein et al. also showed a greater degree of behavioral change in avoiding these
behaviors when both the parent and child were taught through reinforcement separately.2 Perhaps
the most interesting suggestion lies in the use of methods combining the use of cognitive theories
in the forms of self-direction, self-awareness, and self-examination with behavioral
reinforcement for rewarding the desired behaviors.2 Epstein et al.’s aforementioned study used
such a combination of learning models; furthermore, it further involved the family’s influence by
both facilitating schedules family discussions and having therapists consult the parents directly.2
Through the examination of the success recorded in Ning et al.’s study as well as Burnait
et al.’s analysis of effective means by which to better the behavioral method, one may better
understand how to make nutrition education and intervention as effective as possible. Ning et
al.’s study was effective by focusing on the avoidance of problem behaviors; however, the results
did mention the lack of significant change in exercise habits.1 The integration of a family
counseling aspect to the experiment would better address changing the environment at home: one
of the largest contributors to problematic behaviors. Additionally, the addition of aspects to the
cognitive processes behind the problematic behaviors in contrast to focusing on simply avoiding
the behaviors themselves could integrate the cognitive and behavioral aspects to the experiments’
benefit. As with all experiments, the use of a learning model needn’t restrict the parameters of
how an experiment is done as the integration of aspects of various models may lead to a
collective benefit.

4. Dario Diaz
Individual Research Paper
References
1. Ning Y, Yang S, Evans R, Stern M, Sun S, Francis G, Wickham E, Changes in body
anthropometrics and composition in obese adolescents in a lifestyle intervention program. Eur J
Nutr. 2014; 54(4):1093-102.
2. Burniat W, Lissau I, Cole, TJ. Child and Adolescent Obesity: Causes and Consequences,
Prevention and Management. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2002.