Efficacy of a Universal Weight Stigma Intervention on the Quality of Parent-Child Conversations About Weight

Parents frequently use stigmatizing language when discussing body weight with their adolescent child. Yet, to our knowledge, no intervention has been designed to improve parent-adolescent conversations about weight so that they are less stigmatizing. This study examined the efficacy of a universal weight stigma intervention (delivered irrespective of underlying risk) on the quality of conversations about weight between parents and their children.

Audio recordings of parent-adolescent conversations about weight at baseline and at 3 and 6 months postrandomization were analyzed in this substudy of parents (n = 156, 91.0% women, mean age = 42.4 years, 60.2% non-Hispanic White) and early adolescents (52.6% girls, mean age = 12.0 years) who were enrolled in a parallel group randomized controlled trial. Quality of conversations was assessed with the Weight Stigma Family Assessment Task, a novel, direct observational method created for this study. Higher quality conversations constituted less stigmatizing content (e.g., personal responsibility for weight) and more supportive, nonstigmatizing content (e.g., body acceptance).

Audio-recorded conversations about body weight among intervention group participants had 28% less stigmatizing content (1.88 vs. 2.62, p = .007) at 3 months and 24% less stigmatizing content (1.67 vs. 2.20, p = .048) at 6 months than in the control group. No between-group differences in nonstigmatizing content were observed.

The universal weight stigma intervention was associated with improvements in the quality of conversations about body weight. As such, it holds promise as an intervention strategy to help guide parents toward having more supportive, nonstigmatizing conversations about body weight and related health behaviors with their adolescent child.