Making sense of eating, weight and risk in the early teenage years: Views and concerns of parents in poorer socio-economic circumstances

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 63; no. 3; pp. 624 - 635
• Main Authors: Backett-Milburn, Kathryn C., Wills, Wendy J., Gregory, Susan, Lawton, Julia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2006; Elsevier; Pergamon Press Inc
• Series: Social Science & Medicine
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Attitude; Biological and medical sciences; Body; Body Weight; Diet; Disadvantaged; Disadvantaged adolescents; Family Structure; Feeding Behavior; Female; Food; Food Teenagers Parents Weight Socio-economic disadvantage Scotland; Health; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Low income; Male; Medical sciences; Mental Health; Metabolic diseases; Miscellaneous; Obesity; Parents; Parents & parenting; Parents - psychology; Poor; Poverty; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Qualitative research; Risk Assessment; Scotland; Social disadvantage; Social psychology; Socio-economic disadvantage; Socioeconomic Factors; Teenagers; United Kingdom; Weight; United Kingdom; Scotland; Great Britain; Europe; United Kingdom > UK; British Isles, Scotland; Scotland; Socio-economic disadvantage; Teenagers; Weight; Parents; Food; Human; Obesity; Feeding behavior; Socioeconomic status; Parent; Nutrition disorder; Socioeconomic study; Case history; Food intake; Disadvantage; Adolescent; Risk factor; Social medicine; Social aspect; Nutritional status; Public health
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.02.011

This paper reports findings from a qualitative study which examined the perceptions and understandings underpinning the dietary practices in families with ‘normal’ weight and ‘overweight’ young teenagers living in poorer socio-economic circumstances. Thirty four parents/main food providers of boys and girls aged 13–14 years from socio-economically disadvantaged areas in Eastern Scotland were interviewed. Within the home there was a strong acknowledgement of these early teenagers’ own food preferences; parents also saw them as having increasing responsibility for their own food choices outwith the home but these were often described as ‘not healthy’ choices. However, parents saw dietary issues as of fairly low priority in the hierarchy of health-relevant and other risks facing their teenagers. Equally, these interviewees felt that issues around body shape and size at this age were less potentially problematic than the risks to teenagers’ mental or physical health of their becoming obsessed with weight loss. Parents often made sense of their teenager's body size and shape in terms of the variety of body types in families and inherited traits. Interviewees seemed to lack a discourse to understand weight and overweight in this age group, falling back on understandings derived from the adult lifestage.