IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v219y2018icp61-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Distribution and disavowal: Managing the parental stigma of Children's weight and weight loss

Author

Listed:
  • Davis, Jenny L.
  • Goar, Carla
  • Manago, Bianca
  • Reidinger, Bobbi

Abstract

Parents who seek weight loss treatment for their children find themselves pulled between double moral burdens. Blamed and shamed for the weight itself while culpable for the psychological effects of encouraging weight loss, parental stigma comes from multiple directions. Through interviews with parents who send their children to weight loss camps (N = 47), we ask: how do parents maintain a moral sense of self? We show that parents distribute moral blame for their children's weight and disavow moral blame for encouraging weight loss. We further interrogate how parents' own weight status informs moral management strategies. We find parents' bodies and biographies affect the ways distribution and disavowal take form. Parents with self-identified weight problems internalize significant self-blame for children's weight gain, while parents without personal weight problems more freely allocate blame to outside actors and factors. However, when disavowing the effects of encouraging weight loss, parents with current or past weight issues rely on a shared experience that is unavailable to their slender counterparts. Our findings elucidate the moral tensions of parents who embark on weight loss intervention for their children while highlighting the interplay between primary and associative moral stigma in a family context.

Suggested Citation

  • Davis, Jenny L. & Goar, Carla & Manago, Bianca & Reidinger, Bobbi, 2018. "Distribution and disavowal: Managing the parental stigma of Children's weight and weight loss," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 61-69.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:219:y:2018:i:c:p:61-69
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.10.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618305872
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.10.015?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. Thomas, Felicity, 2006. "Stigma, fatigue and social breakdown: Exploring the impacts of HIV/AIDS on patient and carer well-being in the Caprivi Region, Namibia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(12), pages 3174-3187, December.
    2. Hatzenbuehler, M.L. & Phelan, J.C. & Link, B.G., 2013. "Stigma as a fundamental cause of population health inequalities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(5), pages 813-821.
    3. Khamis, Vivian, 2007. "Psychological distress among parents of children with mental retardation in the United Arab Emirates," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 850-857, February.
    4. Brewis, Alexandra A., 2014. "Stigma and the perpetuation of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 152-158.
    5. Manago, Bianca & Davis, Jenny L. & Goar, Carla, 2017. "Discourse in Action: Parents’ use of medical and social models to resist disability stigma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 169-177.
    6. Green, Sara E., 2003. ""What do you mean 'what's wrong with her?'": stigma and the lives of families of children with disabilities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(8), pages 1361-1374, October.
    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. Ringel, Megan M. & Ditto, Peter H., 2019. "The moralization of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Miller, Mahala & Swartz, Teresa Toguchi, 2024. "“Getting Moving” and Being “Active Fit”: Class Differences and Similarities in Health-promoting Parenting through Children's Organized Athletic Activities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 347(C).
    3. Joslyn, Mark R. & Haider-Markel, Donald P., 2019. "Perceived causes of obesity, emotions, and attitudes about Discrimination Policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 97-103.

    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. Trani, Jean-Francois & Ballard, Ellis & Peña, Juan B., 2016. "Stigma of persons with disabilities in Afghanistan: Examining the pathways from stereotyping to mental distress," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 258-265.
    2. Hoke, Morgan K. & Boen, Courtney E., 2021. "The health impacts of eviction: Evidence from the national longitudinal study of adolescent to adult health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    3. Qi Li & Cynthia G. Colen, 2024. "Racial Disparities in the Relationship Between Parental Incarceration and Childhood Obesity," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 43(4), pages 1-22, August.
    4. Mayank Aggarwal & Anindya S. Chakrabarti & Chirantan Chatterjee, 2023. "Movies, stigma and choice: Evidence from the pharmaceutical industry," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 1019-1039, May.
    5. Karen M. Davison & Vidhi Thakkar & Shen (Lamson) Lin & Lorna Stabler & Maura MacPhee & Simon Carroll & Benjamin Collins & Zachary Rezler & Jake Colautti & Chaoqun (Cherry) Xu & Esme Fuller-Thomson & B, 2021. "Interventions to Support Mental Health among Those with Health Conditions That Present Risk for Severe Infection from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Scoping Review of English and Chinese-Langu," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-22, July.
    6. Garthwaite, Kayleigh & Bambra, Clare, 2017. "“How the other half live”: Lay perspectives on health inequalities in an age of austerity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 268-275.
    7. Layland, Eric K. & Maggs, Jennifer L. & Kipke, Michele D. & Bray, Bethany C., 2022. "Intersecting racism and homonegativism among sexual minority men of color: Latent class analysis of multidimensional stigma with subgroup differences in health and sociostructural burdens," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    8. Lad, Saloni U. & Sinopoli, Jacob & Khong, Brian & Conroy, Britt & Perzynski, Adam T. & del Rincon, Juan P., 2024. "Clinical and sociodemographic characteristics as predictors for quality of life in transmasculine and transfeminine individuals receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    9. Iván Sánchez-Iglesias, 2023. "The “Why” in Mental Health, Stigma, and Addictive Behaviors: Causal Inferences in Applied Settings," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(20), pages 1-7, October.
    10. O'Donnell, Aisling T. & Foran, Aoife-Marie, 2024. "The link between anticipated and internalized stigma and depression: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    11. Fenton, Anny T. & Elliott, Marc N. & Schwebel, David C. & Berkowitz, Zahava & Liddon, Nicole C. & Tortolero, Susan R. & Cuccaro, Paula M. & Davies, Suzy L. & Schuster, Mark A., 2018. "Unequal interactions: Examining the role of patient-centered care in reducing inequitable diffusion of a medical innovation, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 238-248.
    12. Timothy P Schofield & Peter Butterworth, 2015. "Patterns of Welfare Attitudes in the Australian Population," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-14, November.
    13. Claire E. Altman & Jennifer Van Hook & Jonathan Gonzalez, 2017. "Becoming Overweight without Gaining a Pound: Weight Evaluations and the Social Integration of Mexicans in the United States," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 3-36, March.
    14. Felner, Jennifer K. & Dudley, Terry D. & Ramirez-Valles, Jesus, 2018. "“Anywhere but here": Querying spatial stigma as a social determinant of health among youth of color accessing LGBTQ services in Chicago's Boystown," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 181-189.
    15. Henny M. W. Bos & Nicola Carone & Esther D. Rothblum & Audrey S. Koh & Nanette K. Gartrell, 2023. "Long-Term Effects of Family Resilience on the Subjective Well-Being of Offspring in the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-13, March.
    16. Tosi, Marco & van den Broek, Thijs, 2020. "Gray divorce and mental health in the United Kingdom," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    17. Grace Lewis & Neneh Rowa-Dewar & Rachel O’Donnell, 2020. "Stigma and Smoking in the Home: Parents’ Accounts of Using Nicotine Replacement Therapy to Protect Their Children from Second-Hand Smoke," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-19, June.
    18. Smith-Morris, Carolyn, 2017. "Epidemiological placism in public health emergencies: Ebola in two Dallas neighborhoods," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 106-114.
    19. King, Wesley M. & Hughto, Jaclyn M.W. & Operario, Don, 2020. "Transgender stigma: A critical scoping review of definitions, domains, and measures used in empirical research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    20. Guido Citoni, 2015. "On equity in health and health care consumption: the role of moral hazard," Working Papers CEB 15-042, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

    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:219:y:2018:i:c:p:61-69. 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.