Physical Educators' Perceptions of Obesity and Performance Expectations

Background/Purpose:

Although school based physical education programs have the potential to promote lifelong physical activity, it has been shown that PE classes may be one setting where youth may experience weight stigma and antifat attitudes. Physical educators, school-health providers, and fitness professionals hold especially critical positions in efforts to address the growing issue of childhood obesity. These very individuals who have the potential to combat obesity often possess strong negative attitudes and biases toward individuals who are overweight. The purpose of this study was to examine how physical education teachers' attitudes toward and expectations for children vary as a function of children's weight status.

Methods:

Participants were 50 (23 male and 27 female) physical educators recruited using electronic resources. They completed an online battery of tests including a demographic questionnaire, Modified Fat Stereotypes Questionnaire (M-FSQ; Davison & Birch 2004), and an Expectations of Performance Questionnaire (developed from Marsh's Physical Self-Description Questionnaire, PSDQ; Marsh, et al., 1994).

Analysis/Results:

Results indicated that stereotypes were endorsed the expected directions (p<.05), supporting the assertion that the physical educators in this sample held stereotypical views based on weight status. They were more likely to view overweight children as “lazy, having a hard time making friends, eating a lot, and bad to be,” while thin children were viewed as “healthy, happy, and likely to take risks.” Teachers expressed lower performance expectations for overweight children than for normal weight children in the areas of strength, flexibility, endurance, coordination, and sport performance (p < .001). Additionally, endorsement of stereotypes was related to greater discrepancies in performance expectations (p < .001).

Conclusions :

Although the majority of teachers believed that physical appearance played no role in their judgments of students, the results demonstrate that these teachers endorsed stereotypical views based on weight status and had lower performance expectations for children who were overweight. This can translate to classroom practices that are detrimental to the PE experiences of overweight children. Given the potential influence that physical educators have on children's lifelong physical activity behaviors, this demonstrates the need for professional development sessions to raise awareness about obesity bias and to develop strategies to structure class environments that will enable teachers to communicate encouraging expectations to overweight students. This is an important step in insuring that student who are at risk based on their weight status have positive experiences in physical education settings that can promote engagement in physical activity.