Very often, overweight or obese adolescents experience bias or weight stigma in physical activity or education. The resultant weight-related bias can cause serious psychological and emotional damage, which can ultimately serve as barrier to adopting a healthy lifestyle (Faith et al, 2002). The literature has suggested that the impact of obesity bias or weight stigma on psycho-social and emotional well-being can be mediated by family ties, social activities (e.g., sports and club activities), and coping mechanisms (Faith et al., 2002; Mellin et al., 2002). No information is available about how overweight or obese adolescents' parents cope with their child being teased in school physical education. This study was designed to address this issue using in-depth qualitative analysis.
Method
Forty-two Southern overweight or obese adolescent parents were recruited and interviewed using semi-structured questions. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. Categories and themes were established by using constant comparison and inductive analysis. Collecting data from a large number of participants, member check, peer debriefing throughout the data analysis and interpretations, and an interpretative member check via a focus group were used to establish data trustworthiness.
Analysis/Results
Five higher order themes emerged from the data. 1) Parents provided a variety of coping strategies for their child to handle weight related teasing in physical education, such as use of religion, joking it off, changing family or child's diet and exercise habits, seeking professional support, etc., 2) Parents emphasized being healthy more than being slim or athletic, 3) Overweight adolescents had barriers to a healthy lifestyle; bad eating habits, limited exercise, and they do not listen, and 4) Parents recognize the importance of healthy dieting and exercise and expect their adolescents to eat healthy and exercise, but lack of detailed systematic plans and persistence to monitor and regulate their behaviors, and 5) Parents experienced frustrations and barriers in monitoring and regulating exercise and dieting.
Conclusions
Parents of overweight adolescents recommended multiple strategies for their child to cope with weight-related teasing. One of the strategies was focusing on living a healthy lifestyle; however, the job was difficult due to the large number of barriers and lack of detailed systematic plans and persistence to monitor and regulate their behaviors. As a result, parents experienced many frustrations. Educating parents on how to develop specific exercise plans and how to monitor and regulate exercise behaviors is needed.
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