No negatives for children's weight management intervention

Professor Helen Truby

Weight management intervention in overweight children does not impact negatively on their body perception and satisfaction, according research published last month in Appetite.

The Monash led longitudinal study investigated the changes in body perception and satisfaction in overweight and obese children in a six month weight management program delivered to parents.

“Childhood obesity affects both physical and psychological health; and overweight children experience higher levels of body dissatisfaction compared with their healthy weight counterparts,” said lead author Professor Helen Truby, Head, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health.

“Until now there has been a lack of research on body satisfaction in overweight children and how weight management interventions may alter this over time.”

Importantly, negative body image is implicated in the development of extreme dieting behaviours which can be the precursor of eating disorders.

Professor Truby and her team also aimed to determine the construct validity of the Children’s Body Image Scale (CBIS) to measure body image and satisfaction in a purely overweight or obese study sample.

Developed by Professor Truby, the CBIS is a widely used pictorial scale that measures pre-adolescent children’s self-perception of their body size and is now an internationally recognised outcome measure for weight management studies in children.

“Our research shows for the first time that the CBIS is a valid tool to measure body satisfaction longitudinally in overweight children,” added Professor Truby.

“The results of our study also suggest that delivery of a weight management program via parents has no negative effect on children’s body satisfaction.”