11-26-2022 12:49pm

RESEARCH STUDY: CHILDREN ARE VERY SENSITIVE TO WORDS PARENTS USE TO DESCRIBE THEIR WEIGHT

Anita Johnson-Brown Editor

Children's Health- According to the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS, One out of five children is affected by obesity in the U.S., which suggests numerous families are talking about weight and so are pediatricians.

A new study, "Patient and Family Perspectives on Terms for Obesity," in the December 2022 Pediatrics (published online Nov. 21) discovered that the words parents choose when talking to youngsters and teenagers about obesity matter.

Researchers collected online survey data from 2,032 young individuals, ages 10-17, and 1,936 parents in 2021 about a list of 27 various terms and phrases—from thick, chubby, skinny, and fat, too many others, parents often use to describe body weight and how kids and teenagers felt about them.

The terms "overweight," "fat" and "extremely obese" provoked the most negative feelings, with over a third reporting humiliation, embarrassment, and unhappiness when their parents used these words to talk about their weight.

Girls reported more negative emotions in response to weight terminology than boys, but youth weight status, if they had obese or not, did not impact how youngsters felt about these words.

The most preferred terms overall were "healthy weight" and "normal weight," but the terms that preadolescence favored were impacted by race and identity, such as "thick" and "curvy," which were more favored by children of certain ethnicities.

Researchers determined that respecting a child's preferred language preferences may assist in positive communication between parents and their children when discussing weight-related health.

This report was updated by Anita Johnson-Brown

The embargo was released on 11/21/2022 at 11:59 p.m.