Meeting Weight Management Goals: The Role of Partner Confirmation

Abstract

Social support research suggests romantic partners could play a vital role in the success of individuals' weight management (WM) efforts, but contradictory findings from previous research have impeded our understanding of how romantic partners influence weight management goal attainment. Employing a confirmation perspective, overweight participants (body mass index [BMI] greater than 25) who were actively trying to manage their weight (N = 53) were asked to respond to daily questionnaires for a period of 2 weeks regarding their interactions with their romantic partner. Diet, exercise, and general weight management goal accomplishment were assessed. HLM was employed to assess the independent and interactive effects of partner acceptance and challenge on each of these goals. Findings suggest that perceiving high levels of both acceptance and challenge from partners was associated with more general WM and diet goal accomplishment. However, greater attainment of exercise goals was associated with only challenge. Fluctuations in partner acceptance and challenge were also examined to determine whether consistency in confirmation behaviors was associated with WM goals. Hierarchical regressions revealed that fluctuations in acceptance, but not challenge, were linked with goal attainment. Specifically, fluctuations in acceptance were helpful for those whose partners were perceived to exhibit lower levels of acceptance, but fluctuations were detrimental for those whose partners exhibited greater acceptance. Implications for communication among couples in which one partner is attempting to lose weight are discussed.

Division-I Student-Athletes’ Affective and Cognitive Responses to Receiving Confirmation From Their Head Coach

“…First, challenge is more germane to contexts of physical activity. CT research has demonstrated that exercise patterns are uniquely explained by receiving challenge from a variety of sources, including mothers (Dailey et al, 2014), romantic partners (Dailey et al, 2016), and a host of significant others (Dailey et al, 2010). Further, coaches are evaluated largely on their ability to offer challenge to athletes (Becker, 2009).…”

“…The broadness of this proposition allows for the selection of appropriate outcomes of confirmation based upon a given relationship and/or context. To date, CT has been applied to a variety of interpersonal relationships and topics including how confirmation shapes individuals’ weight management (Dailey, Crook, Glowacki, Prenger, & Winslow, 2016; Dailey, McCracken, et al, 2011; Dailey, Thompson, & Romo, 2014), adolescents’ identity development (Dailey, 2010), and young children’s social adjustment (Munz & Wilson, 2014). These studies have indicated that developmental messages from a collection of significant others (Dailey, McCracken, et al, 2011; Dailey, Romo, & Thompson, 2011) and mothers (Dailey et al, 2014) are deemed effective when infused with challenge and acceptance.…”

“…For instance, romantic partners’ use of acceptance was found to determine individuals’ self-efficacy regarding diet and exercise (Dailey, Romo, et al, 2011), whereas the use of challenge accounted for actual weight loss, diet, and exercise goal attainment (Dailey et al, 2016). Findings regarding the interaction predicted by CT are mixed, with some studies finding interactions that explain minimum amounts of variance (Dailey et al, 2016; Dailey et al, 2010), others failing to find interactions (Dailey, Romo, et al, 2011), and some discarding this aspect of CT entirely (Dailey, McCracken, et al, 2011; Dailey et al, 2014). Overall, a complex set of findings indicates confirmation functions in part based upon the context and relationship in which it occurs and the outcomes with which it is considered.…”

“…In their initial study of coach confirmation within high school athletics, Cranmer and colleagues (2018) failed to find evidence of the proposed interaction effect. Dailey, Crook, Glowacki, Prenger, and Winslow (2016) argued that failed attempts to find such an effect might be the consequence of sampling and encouraged scholars to continue to investigate the existence of this relationship. Cranmer et al’s (2018) initial study relied upon retrospective data from former high school athletes.…”

“…Such sampling techniques may hinder the emergence of the theorized interaction. With this in mind, this study heeds Dailey et al’s (2016) call for continued investigations with the following research question: Research Question: Will coaches’ use of challenge and acceptance interact to predict outcomes of effective coaching? …”