Understanding Weight Talk in Racially/Ethnically Diverse Homes: A Qualitative Analysis With Parents.

Objective: To explore weight talk in the homes of racially/ethnically diverse immigrant/refugee children and their families.

Design: Qualitative interviews were conducted with parents of young children.

Setting: Twin Cities, Minnesota.

Participants: Parents from 150 families (25 families each from White, Black, Latino, Hmong, Native American, and Somali households) were recruited from primary care clinics. Eligibility criteria included: participating parent lived with a child aged 5-7 years, shared a meal with this child at least daily, and had another child living in the home.

Main Outcome Measures: Weight talk (ie, weight-related conversations, teasing), intergenerational transmission of weight talk.

Analysis: Qualitative content analysis using Nvivo software.

Results: Themes were found for each of our 4 research questions. Themes included: (1) parents experienced weight talk in their own homes growing up; (2) parents believed their community or culture influenced weight talk in their home; (3) parents described different ways of approaching weight talk, including not discussing weight, being direct about weight, and playful teasing; and (4) parents described various strategies for addressing concerns about their children's weight.

Conclusions And Implications: Results suggested weight and health were salient issues for racially/ethnically diverse parents. Further research is needed to investigate why some parents engage in weight teasing, what prompts weight teasing, and the differences between weight- and health-focused conversations to identify potential targets for intervention. Recommendations for health providers working with families with young children, such as training using nonstigmatizing language, are discussed.