Researchers Study Effects of Framing Childhood Obesity Messages
Communications and health policy researchers report that while perceptions about government interventions to address childhood obesity are correlated with political ideology, certain approaches to—or framing of—the childhood obesity message can affect whether conservatives accept the seriousness of the problem and are willing to (i) endorse responsibility beyond the individual, and (ii) support policy action. Sarah Gollust, et al., “Framing the Consequences of Childhood Obesity to Increase Public Support for Obesity Prevention Policy,” Research & Practice, November 2013.
Their findings were based on two Web-based public opinion surveys. The first involved testing perceptions as to a series of common messages about the consequences of childhood obesity. And from those viewed as the strongest, the researchers selected four to use in the second study to assess beliefs about responsibility for addressing childhood obesity and support for policies intended to curb its incidence, including a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, physical activity requirements in schools, restrictions on “junk” food marketing during children’s TV programming, school-based surveillance, and prohibitions on toys in fast-food kids’ meals. Messages about childhood obesity adversely affecting military readiness, long-term health consequences, health-care costs, and childhood bullying “significantly increased participants’ perceptions of the seriousness of childhood obesity” and brought the views of conservatives more into line with those of liberals and moderates.
Still, conservatives were generally unlikely to assign responsibility to anyone other than parents or the children themselves. According to the authors, “although the military readiness frame did increase conservatives’ assignment of responsibility to external actors, there was no corresponding decrease in their attribution of responsibility to parents.” The authors caution that the studies had certain limitations because they were Internet-based, and they also suggest that care be taken in developing health promotion campaigns, because some messages about excessive weight in children may increase levels of stigma or the blame “Americans hold toward this stigmatized group.”
