Externality, environment, and obesity in children.

On the assumption that external responsiveness and environmental characteristics jointly determine whether a child will achieve an excessive weight gain, perpetuating and maintaining obesity, probability hierarchy was hypothesized and tested. Ss of the study were 24 obese and 24 average-weight, white boys, mean age 9 years, 5 months. An auditory distraction task and Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test were used to measure auditory and visual responsivity to external cues, respectively. Socioeconomic status was used as an indicator of the childhood environment. As predicted, the greatest percentages of obese children were observed in the lower-socioeconomic, external group, followed by the lower-socioeconomic, internal group and middle-socioeconomic, external group. The smallest percentage of obese children was observed in the middle-socioeconomic, internal group.