Robinson Eric, Sutin Angelina R
1 Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, University of Liverpool.
2 Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, Florida State University College of Medicine.
Psychol Sci. 2017 Mar;28(3):320-329. doi: 10.1177/0956797616682027. Epub 2017 Jan 1.
The global prevalence of childhood obesity is alarmingly high. Parents' identification of their children as overweight is thought to be an important prerequisite to tackling childhood obesity, but recent findings suggest that such parental identification is counterintuitively associated with increased weight gain during childhood. One possibility is that parental identification of their child as being overweight results in that child viewing his or her body size negatively and attempting to lose weight, which eventually results in weight gain. We used data from two longitudinal cohort studies to examine the relation between children's weight gain and their parents' identification of them as being overweight. Across both studies, children whose parents perceive them to be overweight are more likely to view their body size negatively and are more likely than their peers to be actively trying to lose weight. These child-reported outcomes explained part of the counterintuitive association between parents' perceptions of their children as being overweight and the children's subsequent weight. We propose that the stigma attached to being recognized and labeled as "overweight" may partly explain these findings.
全球儿童肥胖的患病率高得惊人。父母认定自己的孩子超重被认为是解决儿童肥胖问题的一个重要前提，但最近的研究结果表明，这种父母的认定与儿童期体重增加之间存在着与直觉相反的关联。一种可能性是，父母认定自己的孩子超重会导致孩子对自己的体型产生负面看法，并试图减肥，而这最终会导致体重增加。我们使用了两项纵向队列研究的数据来检验儿童体重增加与父母认定他们超重之间的关系。在这两项研究中，父母认为自己超重的孩子更有可能对自己的体型产生负面看法，并且比同龄人更有可能积极尝试减肥。这些儿童报告的结果解释了父母认为孩子超重与孩子随后体重之间这种与直觉相反的关联的部分原因。我们认为，被认定并贴上“超重”标签所带来的耻辱感可能部分解释了这些发现。
