"Mommy-see, mommy-do": perceptions of intergenerational "obesity" transmission among lower-income, higher-weight, rural midwestern American women. Issue 3 (3rd July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bombak, Andrea; Robinson, Emma; Hughes, Katherine; Riediger, Natalie; Thomson, Lisa
• Is Part Of: Food & foodways. Volume 30:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 185
• Page End: 207
• Publication Date: 2022-07-03
• Subjects: Mother blame -- parental feeding -- childhood "obesity" -- critical weight studies -- food insecurity; Food -- History -- Periodicals; Food -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Food habits -- Periodicals; 394.12
• DOI: 10.1080/07409710.2022.2089825
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0740-9710

Abstract

Abstract: Public health and media discourses frequently blame mothers for the size of their children, including parents coping with multiple structural disadvantages. Rural Midwestern American, low-income, self-identified higher-weight women (n = 25) participated in face-to-face, audio-recorded, semi-structured interviews about their beliefs regarding how body size is transmitted across generations. We analyzed interviews using causation coding. Participants facing socioeconomic and geographic barriers to salutogenic lifestyles de-emphasized genetic and epigenetic factors in body size. Instead, participants focused on parents' role modeling, provision of "obesogenic" foods, and failure to enact protective behaviors like providing non-"obesogenic" foods and limiting children's screen time. Findings demonstrate that the moralization of childhood "obesity" is pervasive, and these damaging discourses have been taken up among those facing socioeconomic disadvantage.