‘Thin people … they're healthy’: young children's understanding of body weight change

Abstract

Summary Background While research has investigated negative stereotyping of fat body shapes, little has focused on young children's understanding of the mechanisms, motivations and consequences of weight change. Objectives To investigate children's understanding of how weight change is achieved, people's motivation for weight change, and the consequences of weight loss or weight gain. Methods One hundred children (mean age 5.2, 38 girls) read a book in which one of the main characters (male/female according to the child's sex) was either healthy weight or overweight. Afterwards, this character was described as gaining or losing weight, and drawings which depicted the child in the story as either healthy weight or overweight were presented to the child and discussed. An audio‐recorded semi‐structured interview followed and transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Nearly all children described the weight/shape change and attributed this to food more frequently than exercise. Weight loss was viewed positively and both motivations and consequences grouped under two master themes (physical and social reasons). No clear gender differences were observed in these responses. Conclusions Talking with 5‐year‐olds showed them to be observant and knowledgeable, especially about motivations for and consequences of weight change. For those working to improve children's health literacy, this suggests receptiveness to early and fact‐based education.

A qualitative, prospective study of children's understanding of weight gain

“…It is interesting to note, however, and consistent with previous findings (Baxter et al ., ), that only a very small proportion of children identified lack of physical activity as a mechanism related to increase in weight and body size, with only a small increase such that by the age of 5 years, only 3% of responses mentioned physical activity. This may reflect the fact that the underlying biological mechanisms that connect physical activity to body size are more abstract and less understandable to children aged 3–5 years.…”

“…Children with complete data at all time points (88%) were included in this study. Postcode data indicated 58% of families in the initial sample lived in high socioeconomic areas, 32% in average areas, and 10% in disadvantaged areas (Australian Bureau of Statistics, ). Parents were mostly well‐educated, holding university degrees (77.1% mothers; 65.4% fathers).…”

“…To our knowledge, only one study has investigated the development of conceptualization of weight in young children aged 5 years old (Baxter, Collins, & Hill, ), and none have investigated the emergence of this understanding over time. This is an important gap as the extant research suggests that by this age, some children have already developed forms of weight bias (Damiano, Gregg, et al ., ), although recent research suggests that children's attitudes about others may in part be determined by perceived similarity to themselves as well as attitudes specific to weight.…”

“…In their study among 5‐year‐olds, Baxter et al . () described that the majority (96%) of their sample of 36 children cited food as a factor for weight gain spontaneously, while fewer mentioned physical activity factors, suggesting that the idea that food intake is related to weight gain is one already familiar to most 5‐year‐olds. These findings are consistent with those among older children aged 4–11 years, who have been described as viewing body weight as being highly controllable by the individual (Rees, Oliver, Woodman, & Thomas, ).…”

“No fat friend of mine”: Young children's responses to overweight and disability

“…In another study with children of a similar age, we used the present character drawings to talk with children about their understanding of the motivations for, and consequences of, changing from fat to healthy weight and vice versa (Baxter, Collins, & Hill, 2015). These children were able to identify the change in character body weight or shape, readily related this to both eating and activity, and appeared sophisticated in their description of the consequent positives and negatives for the characters.…”