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Associations Between Weight Talk and Biopsychosocial Outcomes in Children from Racially/Ethnically Diverse Households

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Abstract

Weight talk in the home—parents talking to their children about their weight, shape or size—has been associated with many negative health outcomes in children and adolescents, although the majority of research has been with adolescents. This study explored associations between weight talk in the home and a broad range of child biopsychosocial outcomes (e.g., weight status, diet quality, psychological well-being, peer problems), in addition to child sex and race/ethnicity. Parents of 5–7 year old children from six racial/ethnic groups (White, African American, Hmong, Latino, Native American, Somali) (n = 150) completed an online survey and completed 24-hour dietary recalls on the child. Additionally, anthropometric measurements were taken on the 5–7 year old child and parent. Over one-third of parents reported engaging in weight talk with their child. Overall, weight talk was associated with child weight status, but not with child diet quality. The presence of weight talk differed by race/ethnicity and child weight status. Most psychological (e.g., emotional problems) and social (e.g., peer problems) outcomes differed significantly by race/ethnicity with the following pattern: (1) no significant associations between weight talk and biopsychosocial outcomes were found for Hmong and Latino children; (2) a negative association (e.g., less healthy functioning) was found for African American and Somali children; (3) a positive association (e.g., healthier functioning) was found for Native American children. Future research should investigate why psychological and social outcomes differ by race/ethnicity in children experiencing weight talk. This study confirms the need to develop best practices for helping parents concerned about their child’s weight to talk to children in a healthful way.

Highlights

  • The presence of weight talk in the home differed by race/ethnicity, with Latino, Hmong, and Somali parents reporting the most weight talk.

  • There was a significant association between parental weight talk and child weight status; a significant association was not found between parental weight talk and child diet quality.

  • Negative and significant associations (e.g., increased emotional problems) were found between weight talk in the home and biopsychosocial outcomes for African American and Somali children; no associations were found for Hmong and Latino children.

  • Positive and significant associations (e.g., reduced conduct problems) were found between weight talk in the home and biopsychosocial outcomes for Native American children.

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Funding

Research is supported by grant number R01HL126171 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (PI: Berge). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Amanda C. Trofholz, Allan Tate, Susan Telke, Katie A. Loth, Gretchen J. Buchanan & Jerica M. Berge

  2. College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Allan Tate

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  1. Amanda C. Trofholz
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  2. Allan Tate
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  3. Susan Telke
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  4. Katie A. Loth
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Contributions

A.C.T.: Conceptualization; Data Curation; Writing—Original Draft; Project administration. A.T.: Investigation; Software; Formal analysis; Visualization; Writing—Review & Editing. K.A.L.: Conceptualization; Visualization; Writing—Review & Editing. J.M.B.: Conceptualization; Investigation; Supervision; Funding acquisition Writing—Review & Editing.

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Correspondence to Amanda C. Trofholz.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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All family participants consented/assented to being in the study, and Family Matters protocols were approved by the University of Minnesota’s Institutional Review Board.

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Trofholz, A.C., Tate, A., Telke, S. et al. Associations Between Weight Talk and Biopsychosocial Outcomes in Children from Racially/Ethnically Diverse Households. J Child Fam Stud 32, 31–43 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02351-9

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