Understanding children's voices about enablers of obesity from a causal attribution's stance: a vignette study

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health
• Public Health
• Psychology

Background:

• Childhood obesity presents significant health, economic, and psychosocial challenges.
• Current interventions for childhood obesity often overlook children's own viewpoints.
• Weiner's causal attribution framework offers a lens to understand these perspectives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore children's perspectives on the factors enabling childhood obesity.
• To apply causal attribution theory to understand children's views on obesity.

Main Methods:

• A vignette-based, open-ended question was administered to 277 children.
• Content analysis was employed to analyze the qualitative data collected.

Main Results:

• Children identified internal, unstable, and controllable causes (e.g., diet, self-regulation) as primary obesity enablers (76.53%).
• External, unstable, and controllable causes (e.g., parental restrictions) were cited by a smaller group (11.91%).
• Children with healthy weight focused more on internal, stable, controllable causes, while those with unhealthy weight/obesity cited more external, unstable, controllable causes.

Conclusions:

• Children's attributions for obesity highlight controllable internal factors.
• Incorporating children's perspectives into intervention design is essential for effective childhood obesity management.