**4. Children and the onset of obesity**

kids?" [13] show the impulse toward locating the problem in individual lifestyles and be‐ haviors. However, the problem of obesity and poverty in developed countries is more com‐

We hypothesize that corporations promote obesity in families through three aspects of the employment relationship: low wages, long hours, and unpredictable hours. Low wages strain a family's ability to buy healthy foods, live in neighborhoods where fresh produce is more likely to be available, and enroll family members in exercise programs. In 2009, 5.2 million families were living below the US poverty level, despite having at least one member in the labor force for half the year or more. The 2009 figure increased from 4.5 million in 2008 and continues to trend upward [15]; inequality across households is widening in the United States [16]. The plight of the working poor [17], whose employment does not yield sufficient income, widens the gap in well‐being. Even the conditions of the unemployed poor may be determined in part by corporate labor policies, particularly where unemployment or part‐time work status is involuntary. Corporate investors in the United States have long pressed for employment practices that maximize shareholder wealth but negatively impact work conditions and workers; layoffs increase stock prices [18] but strain households, wages are depressed in the

Long hours of work tax the ability of family members to engage in physical activity and the ability of parents to prepare healthy foods from fresh ingredients each evening. Work hours in the United States increased steadily from the 1970s [21], especially for families where parents' low wages require their taking a second job. Increased working hours for men are found primarily among high socioeconomic score (SES) brackets [22], and thus, a key mecha‐ nism behind pediatric obesity likely depends on the intersection of low SES with *female* hours worked. Specifically, working mothers in the United States spend significantly less time with their children than nonworking mothers, in each of several dimensions (eating together, unstructured playing together, playing sports together, custodial care or supervision) [23]. Long hours worked by mothers are associated with childhood obesity in the United States [12, 24, 25], the United Kingdom [26], Australia [27], and Japan [28]. Working mothers frequently express preferences for sustainable jobs at 20–30 h of work per week [29] and limit on the pressure to do involuntary overtime [30], but corporations typically do not provide such employment options. At the same time, father's as well as mother's work conditions are increasingly having a negative impact on pediatric obesity. A study of 434 9‐year olds in an Australian birth cohort, 22.8% of whom were overweight or obese, found that father's non‐ standard work hours, but not mother's, were significantly associated with the child's being

Families composed of middle class and white collar professional parents might compensate for longer hours by hiring child care providers who facilitate children's after school physical activities or by purchasing time‐saving and healthy already prepared foods. Women in lower SES strata do not have these options. Parents in low‐wage jobs cannot afford many of the child

plex and involves structural factors, including economic policies [14].

**3. Work conditions in the corporation**

198 Adiposity - Omics and Molecular Understanding

lowest positions [19], and US jobs are outsourced [20].

overweight or obese [31].

Pediatric obesity is shaped by factors that are largely not within the control of children, which makes childhood obesity a good place to look beyond the tendency toward "blaming the victim" for social problems. The levels of exercise and content of diet for children, especially the alarmingly high number of obese children under the age of 11, are affected by parents, schools, built environments, and biological propensities.

Built environments include "safe streets" where children can walk to playgrounds and available options for purchasing healthy and affordable foods. They also include recent economic and technological developments like superstores that source and sell food in bulk. These stores make it easier to obtain processed food and less necessary to exert while doing so. A recent study finds that "an additional Supercenter per 100,000 residents increases average BMI by 0.24 units and the obesity rate by 2.3% points" [40].

The act of eating itself includes an environment, with factors such as portion size, plate size, food variety, lighting, and socializing; variation in these factors prompt individuals to eat different amounts [41]. This body of research offers an expanded notion of marketing and context for understanding overeating, but the burden falls back to the consumer. The over‐ arching conclusion is that individuals must monitor their "mindless eating" [42].

We suggest that, instead of treating diet and exercise as lifestyle choices that parents make, energy balance should be understood as shaped within structural constraints created by organizations and environments. In addition, the ability of parents to seek appropriate clinical screening for their children, which can yield early detection of inflammation profiles and medical complications, is often shaped by work hours and wages. Lower SES and working in jobs where compliance is valued over speaking up can affect whether and how much parents lobby in the doctor's office for early medical interventions [43].

Considerations for how overall environments shape individual options around food and exercise behaviors are just gaining salience. Ideas from organization studies about meritocracy show how hard it is for structural factors to appear above the din of individualistic attributions and recommendations. Despite extensive research on numerous structural factors, the focus remains on individualistic health goals, even for very young children. The Institute of Medi‐ cine [44] issued a comprehensive set of recommendations, which focus on having early child care providers create ample time for exercise and movement, even for infants, and serve healthy foods, with state regulators urged to oversee these practices. Such practices are necessary and useful, but are designed around a fragmentary, incomplete portrait of how parental work conditions relate to childhood obesity. More fundamental questions, such as why long parental work hours necessitate so much child care or how quality and affordability of child care varies across SES, were not probed. Parents who work nonstandard hours may have to resort to more sedentary child care options, such as children staying with older, retired relatives, or alone.
