Not long ago, an academic paper with several authors examined the existence and relationship of two concepts: weight stigma and weight stigma by association. The subjects were members of “a large, community-based sample.”
One objective was to rate parents on how caring and helpful they were willing to be, along with a rating to indicate how well they succeeded in that effort. When the results were tallied, it appeared that both obese parents and non-obese ones care equally for their children, be they daughters or sons. Furthermore, obese and non-obese parents are equally caring.
But: Obese parents are less effective, and parents of obese children are less effective.
One conclusion drawn by the researchers is that “Parents of children with obesity may experience weight stigma by association, which could have direct consequences for the parents, the children, and the parent-child relationship.” And, no matter how much they themselves weigh, parents of obese kids are rated as less effective. According to the authors of the paper,
There was also an effect of weight stigma wherein parents with obesity were also rated as less effective and helpful than parents without obesity.
Who is doing all this evaluating, and based on what standards?
It comes as no surprise to learn that a lot depends on who performs the evaluations. People who believe that parents are strictly and solely to blame for a child’s obesity do not care if those parents are themselves bulky or slender. The amount of censure is the same. And apparently, when either the young folks or their parents are obese, critics really don’t care how brilliant or talented the obese children in question may be. There is plenty of disapproval to go around.
One unfortunate result is that parents who are blamed and shamed “may internalize the negative parenting evaluations and subject themselves to further self-blame…,” which of course is exactly what their critics hope they will do. Even when parents exert themselves to make sure their methods “align with professional pediatric recommendations,” if their kids are overweight, those parents are still disrespected. The authors write,
One study found that parents who were stigmatized for their own weight reported greater use of restrictive feeding practices…
And yet, other research shows that when moms get strict about feeding, their kids are likely to eat more, not less. In effect, when an obese mama is picked on by someone who likes to stigmatize others, her kids will be even less carefully fed, and probably gain weight.
Another study dug deep and learned that when a girl is called “too fat” by a relative, her odds of being obese 10 years later increase by 62%. So maybe everyone should just pause and consider the many virtues of silence.
Several strengths
Characterized by its authors as possessing several strengths, this study is described as “the first randomized experiment to test weight stigma by association in a parent-child dyad using a large community sample.” Elaborate randomization standards are said to balance all potential variables and confounds across groups. It also involved large numbers of participants.
The authors note that their experimental stimuli “represented positive parenting practices” and
“used the same vignette of the parent-child dyad in all experimental conditions, which was crafted using the AAP parenting recommendations.” Summing up, they say,
Overall, the present randomized experimental study provides causal (rather than merely associative) evidence that weight stigma by association indeed occurs… Though a nascent area of research, weight stigma by association may have potential implications for parenting and effective pediatric obesity care.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Weight Stigma by Association Among Parents of Children with Obesity: A Randomized Trial,” ScienceDirect.com, 2022
Image by Tama66/Pixabay
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