How do looking patterns, anti-fat bias, and causal weight attributions relate to adults’ judgements of child weight?

ObjectivesParents infrequently recognize childhood overweight/obesity and healthcare professionals (HCPs) also struggle to visually identify it, potentially limiting the offer and uptake of weight management support. This study examined perceptual and attitudinal/cognitive determinants of child weight judgements amongst parents and HCPs to identify targets for intervention.DesignWe used a mixed experimental design with parents and HCPs as the between‐participants factor. Stimulus gender, age and BMI centile were the within‐participant repeated measures factors.MethodsOne hundred and fifty‐six HCPs and 249 parents of children aged 4–5 or 10–11 years viewed simulated child images. They estimated their relative size and categorized the weight status of each figure. Stimuli were photo‐realistic figural scales based on 3D‐scans of 4‐ to 5‐ and 10‐ to 11‐year‐old children varying in adiposity. Participants also reported their beliefs about causes, controllability and categorization of child weight.ResultsBoth groups accurately estimated the figures' relative size. However, categorization of higher weight figures was poor, demonstrating a mismatch between perceptual judgements of size and categorization of weight status. Lower levels of comfort with assigning ‘overweight’ categorizations to children, and a stronger belief that weight was controllable by the child/parent, predicted less accurate weight status categorizations.ConclusionsParental and HCP misperceptions when categorizing children's higher weight are related to attitudinal/cognitive factors, including reluctance to label a child's weight status as overweight and beliefs about whether a child's weight can be controlled by them or their family.

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The MapMe Body Scales: Validity and Reliability of a Biometrically Accurate, Photorealistic Set of Child Body Size Scales

Ridley,

Evans,

Cornelissen

et al. 2024

Children

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Background/Objectives: It is vital to identify children whose weight status means that they may benefit from medical or behavioural support, but adult visual judgements of child weight status are inaccurate, and children are seldom routinely weighed and measured. Consequently, there is a need for validated visual tools for use in training, communication, and interventions relating to child weight. Methods: This paper presents validation data for a set of innovative photo-realistic colour body size scales depicting boys and girls aged 4–5 and 10–11. Each age- and gender-specific scale consists of 7 figures based on three-dimensional (3D) scans of 388 children to accurately represent the change in body size caused by changing adiposity. To assess scale validity, 238 adult participants (105 men, 132 women, 1 non-binary individual) undertook two tasks: rating figure adiposity using a visual analogue scale and ranking figures in ascending order of adiposity (OSF Reference: gdp9j). Results: Participants accurately estimated the relative adiposity of each figure, i.e., they were able to tell the difference between figures and correctly rank them by size. This demonstrates scale validity for use in body size tasks. One hundred and fifty-one participants also provided 3-day test–retest data, which demonstrates excellent short-term reliability. Conclusions: Overall, the MapMe child body size scales provide an anthropometrically accurate, valid, reliable, and usable tool for size-related tasks and communication with adults regarding child weight.

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How do looking patterns, anti-fat bias, and causal weight attributions relate to adults’ judgements of child weight?

Cited by 3 publications

References 77 publications

Support for weight-related anti-discrimination laws and policies: Modelling the role of attitudes toward poverty alongside weight stigma, causal attributions about weight, and prejudice

Support for weight-related anti-discrimination laws and policies: Modelling the role of attitudes toward poverty alongside weight stigma, causal attributions about weight, and prejudice

Determinants of child body weight categorization in parents and health care professionals: An experimental study

The MapMe Body Scales: Validity and Reliability of a Biometrically Accurate, Photorealistic Set of Child Body Size Scales

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