Thomas Samantha L, Olds Timothy, Pettigrew Simone, Randle Melanie, Lewis Sophie
School of Health and Society, Faculty of Social Sciences and Australian Health Services Research Institute, Faculty of Business, University of Wollongong, Building 41, Northfields Avenue, NSW 2522, Australia.
Health and Use of Time (HUT) Group, University of South Australia, Australia.
Soc Sci Med. 2014 Oct;119:114-22. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.024. Epub 2014 Aug 19.
Family interactions about weight and health take place against the backdrop of the wider social discourse relating to the obesity epidemic. Parents (and children) negotiate complex and often contradictory messages in constructing a set of beliefs and practices around obesity and weight management. Despite this, very little research attention has been given to the nature of family-unit discourse on the subject of body weight and it's potential influence on the weight-related behaviours of family members. This includes the broad influence that dominant socio-cultural discourses have on family conceptualisations of weight and health. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with 150 family 'groups' comprised of at least one parent and one child in Victoria and South Australia, we explored how parents and children conceptualise and discuss issues of weight- and health-related lifestyle behaviours. Data were analysed using Attride-Stirling's (2001) thematic network approach. Three thematic clusters emerged from the analysis. First, both parents and children perceived that weight was the primary indicator of health. However, parents focused on the negative physical implications of overweight while children focused on the negative social implications. Second, weight and lifestyle choices were highly moralised. Parents saw it as their responsibility to communicate to children the 'dangers' of fatness. Children reported that parents typically used negatively-framed messages and scare tactics rather than positively-framed messages to encourage healthy behaviours. Third was the perception among parents and children that if you were thin, then eating habits and exercise were less important, and that activity could provide an antidote to food choices. Results suggest that both parents and children are internalising messages relating to obesity and weight management that focus on personal responsibility and blame attribution. These views reflect the broader societal discourse, and their consolidation at the family level is likely to increase their potency and make them resistant to change.
关于体重与健康的家庭互动是在与肥胖流行相关的更广泛社会话语背景下发生的。父母（以及孩子）在围绕肥胖和体重管理构建一套信念和做法时，要协商复杂且往往相互矛盾的信息。尽管如此，关于家庭单位在体重问题上的话语性质及其对家庭成员体重相关行为的潜在影响，很少有研究关注。这包括占主导地位的社会文化话语对家庭体重和健康概念化的广泛影响。通过对维多利亚州和南澳大利亚州由至少一名家长和一名孩子组成的150个家庭“群体”进行深入的定性访谈，我们探讨了家长和孩子如何概念化并讨论与体重和健康相关的生活方式行为问题。使用阿特里德 - 斯特林（2001年）的主题网络方法对数据进行了分析。分析得出了三个主题集群。首先，家长和孩子都认为体重是健康的主要指标。然而，家长关注超重的负面身体影响，而孩子关注超重的负面社会影响。其次，体重和生活方式选择被高度道德化。家长认为向孩子传达肥胖的“危害”是他们的责任。孩子们报告说，家长通常使用负面框架的信息和恐吓策略，而不是正面框架的信息来鼓励健康行为。第三是家长和孩子的一种观念，即如果你瘦，那么饮食习惯和运动就不那么重要了，而且活动可以抵消食物选择的影响。结果表明，家长和孩子都在将与肥胖和体重管理相关的信息内化，这些信息侧重于个人责任和责备归因。这些观点反映了更广泛的社会话语，它们在家庭层面的巩固可能会增强其影响力，并使其难以改变。
