IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v119y2014icp114-122.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Don't eat that, you'll get fat!” Exploring how parents and children conceptualise and frame messages about the causes and consequences of obesity

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas, Samantha L.
  • Olds, Timothy
  • Pettigrew, Simone
  • Randle, Melanie
  • Lewis, Sophie

Abstract

Family interactions about weight and health take place against the backdrop of the wider social discourse relating to the obesity epidemic. Parents (and children) negotiate complex and often contradictory messages in constructing a set of beliefs and practices around obesity and weight management. Despite this, very little research attention has been given to the nature of family-unit discourse on the subject of body weight and it's potential influence on the weight-related behaviours of family members. This includes the broad influence that dominant socio-cultural discourses have on family conceptualisations of weight and health. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with 150 family ‘groups’ comprised of at least one parent and one child in Victoria and South Australia, we explored how parents and children conceptualise and discuss issues of weight- and health-related lifestyle behaviours. Data were analysed using Attride-Stirling's (2001) thematic network approach. Three thematic clusters emerged from the analysis. First, both parents and children perceived that weight was the primary indicator of health. However, parents focused on the negative physical implications of overweight while children focused on the negative social implications. Second, weight and lifestyle choices were highly moralised. Parents saw it as their responsibility to communicate to children the ‘dangers’ of fatness. Children reported that parents typically used negatively-framed messages and scare tactics rather than positively-framed messages to encourage healthy behaviours. Third was the perception among parents and children that if you were thin, then eating habits and exercise were less important, and that activity could provide an antidote to food choices. Results suggest that both parents and children are internalising messages relating to obesity and weight management that focus on personal responsibility and blame attribution. These views reflect the broader societal discourse, and their consolidation at the family level is likely to increase their potency and make them resistant to change.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas, Samantha L. & Olds, Timothy & Pettigrew, Simone & Randle, Melanie & Lewis, Sophie, 2014. "“Don't eat that, you'll get fat!” Exploring how parents and children conceptualise and frame messages about the causes and consequences of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 114-122.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:119:y:2014:i:c:p:114-122
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614005413
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.024?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lewis, Sophie & Thomas, Samantha L. & Blood, R. Warwick & Castle, David J. & Hyde, Jim & Komesaroff, Paul A., 2011. "How do obese individuals perceive and respond to the different types of obesity stigma that they encounter in their daily lives? A qualitative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(9), pages 1349-1356.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kristen C. Reilly & Patricia Tucker & Jennifer D. Irwin & Andrew M. Johnson & Erin S. Pearson & Dirk E. Bock & Shauna M. Burke, 2018. "“C.H.A.M.P. Families”: Description and Theoretical Foundations of a Paediatric Overweight and Obesity Intervention Targeting Parents—A Single-Centre Non-Randomised Feasibility Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Philippe Batifoulier & Louise Braddock & Victor Duchesne & Ariane Ghirardello & John Latsis, 2021. "Das Targeting von „Lifestyle“-Bedingungen. Welche Rechtfertigungen für die Behandlung? [“Targeting Lifestyle" Conditions: What Justifications for Treatment?]," Post-Print hal-03345323, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Feng, Xiaoqi & Wilson, Andrew, 2022. "Association between community average body mass index and perception of overweight," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    2. Pudney, Ellen V. & Himmelstein, Mary S. & Puhl, Rebecca M. & Foster, Gary D., 2020. "Distressed or not distressed? A mixed methods examination of reactions to weight stigma and implications for emotional wellbeing and internalized weight bias," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    3. Mooney, Stephen J. & El-Sayed, Abdulrahman M., 2016. "Stigma and the etiology of depression among the obese: An agent-based exploration," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1-7.
    4. Barlösius, Eva & Philipps, Axel, 2015. "Felt stigma and obesity: Introducing the generalized other," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 9-15.
    5. Christy Brady, 2016. "Decreasing Obesity and Obesity Stigma: Socio-Demographic Differences in Beliefs about Causes of and Responsibility for Obesity," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-10, March.
    6. Natalia Szablewska & Krzysztof Kubacki, 2019. "A Human Rights-Based Approach to the Social Good in Social Marketing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 871-888, March.
    7. Wu, Hania Fei, 2021. "Social determination, health selection or indirect selection? Examining the causal directions between socioeconomic status and obesity in the Chinese adult population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    8. Nichols, Bridget Satinover, 2015. "Construction and validation of the in-store privacy preference scale," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 70-78.
    9. Gaspar, Maria Clara de Moraes Prata & Sato, Priscila de Morais & Scagliusi, Fernanda Baeza, 2022. "Under the ‘weight’ of norms: Social representations of overweight and obesity among Brazilian, French and Spanish dietitians and laywomen," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    10. Brewis, Alexandra A., 2014. "Stigma and the perpetuation of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 152-158.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:119:y:2014:i:c:p:114-122. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.