Fathers’ Perspectives about the Weight Culture in the Home Environment: A Qualitative Analysis - Abstract
Objective: Weight-focused conversations are known to lead to harmful outcomes for children such as lower body satisfaction and overweight/obesity, however unlike mothers, little is known about fathers’ perspectives and role in shaping the weight culture in the home environment. The main objective of this study is to examine father’s perspectives about the weight culture in the home environment.
Methods: Diverse fathers (n = 13) from five different cultural backgrounds (i.e., Asian, Black, Hmong, Mixed/Other Race/Ethnicity, White) participated in a qualitative interview. A hybrid deductive/inductive qualitative approach was used in analysis.
Results: A total of eight main themes were found from three research questions including: (1) how do fathers describe weight-focused conversations in the home environment?, (2) what is the role of fathers in shaping the weight culture in the home environment?, and (3) how does the cultural background of the family influence weight-focused conversations in the home environment? Findings suggest that some households did not allow weight-focused conversations and some did. Findings related to a father’s role in shaping the weight culture showed the importance of communication and parent’s own experience, parent’s role in educating children about perspective taking, and the importance of parents modeling health-focused conversations. Findings related to cultural background included intergenerational transmission of weight-focused conversations and stress related to living in the US.
Conclusions: Educating fathers about the unintended consequences of weight-focused conversations and weight stigma while helping them to reframe conversations into health-focused conversations could mitigate harmful outcomes associated with weight-focused conversations.