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Understanding Weight Talk in Racially/Ethnically Diverse Homes: A Qualitative Analysis With Parents
Amanda Trofholz1, Anna K Hochgraf2, Lauren Tschida1
1Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Objective:
To explore weight talk in the homes of racially/ethnically diverse immigrant/refugee children and their families.
Design:
Qualitative interviews were conducted with parents of young children.
Setting:
Twin Cities, Minnesota.
Participants:
Parents from 150 families (25 families each from White, Black, Latino, Hmong, Native American, and Somali households) were recruited from primary care clinics. Eligibility criteria included: participating parent lived with a child aged 5-7 years, shared a meal with this child at least daily, and had another child living in the home.
Main Outcome Measures:
Weight talk (ie, weight-related conversations, teasing), intergenerational transmission of weight talk.
Analysis:
Qualitative content analysis using Nvivo software.
Results:
Themes were found for each of our 4 research questions. Themes included: (1) parents experienced weight talk in their own homes growing up; (2) parents believed their community or culture influenced weight talk in their home; (3) parents described different ways of approaching weight talk, including not discussing weight, being direct about weight, and playful teasing; and (4) parents described various strategies for addressing concerns about their children's weight.
Conclusions And Implications:
Results suggested weight and health were salient issues for racially/ethnically diverse parents. Further research is needed to investigate why some parents engage in weight teasing, what prompts weight teasing, and the differences between weight- and health-focused conversations to identify potential targets for intervention. Recommendations for health providers working with families with young children, such as training using nonstigmatizing language, are discussed.
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