Types and Nature of Parental Support for Overweight Students to Cope With Weight-Related Teasing

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Parental support can protect adolescents from various forms of bullying. There is a lack of in-depth information about what social support parents provide to overweight adolescents when they are teased at school. In this study, we took an initial step to address this gap in the literature by describing the types and nature of support that parents provided to their overweight child when they were teased. METHODS: A conversational style semistructured interview/prompts and probes were conducted with 28 volunteering parents. Inductive content analysis was used to analyze the data. Data trustworthiness was established through a variety of strategies. RESULTS: Six themes emerged from the data: (1) having conversations, being encouraging, and “being supportive”; (2) using religion to teach self-acceptance and comfort their child; (3) offering advice on how to cope with the teasing; (4) fostering their child's self-esteem; (5) teaching reality and acceptance of criticism in early life; and (6) seeking support from other parents or professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Parents offered multiple supports for their child when they were teased. This information can facilitate the development of effective family-based interventions on coping with teasing among overweight students. Future research is also needed to examine the effectiveness of the recommended interventions.