Abstract Aim: This thesis explores parental challenges to managing childhood weight. Relevance: Childhood overweight and obesity is a global health issue with serious health and societal consequences. Parents play a key role in the prevention and treatment of childhood overweight and obesity. Understanding the challenges parents face can facilitate improved support to them in providing their children an environment that promotes a healthy lifestyle and normal weight status. Method: Data from three online parenting forums (based in Australia, USA, and UK) and posted from 2010-2016 were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Finding: Three themes were identified. The first theme relates to the challenges in managing childhood weight which were acknowledged by the parents. The second theme relates to parents’ beliefs about childhood overweight and obesity. The third theme relates to the parents’ beliefs about the health consequences of childhood overweight and obesity. The second and third themes were not directly acknowledged by the parents. Conclusion: Parental understanding and perceptions of childhood overweight and obesity and the impact of elevated weight on the child affect parents desire and ability to manage childhood weight. It is important that interventions (at family, community, and health care system levels) to reduce and prevent childhood overweight and obesity are acceptable, effective, and sustainable to the parents. Greater parental understanding of how culture, past experiences and child’s behaviour can obscure detection and hinder actions to prevent childhood overweight and obesity can increase the success of interventions to manage childhood weight.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-324908 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Brouwer, Brenda |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för medicinska vetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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