This study surveyed 185 parents to determine whether their perceived risk of their child developing obesity and their implicit theories about the malleability of weight independently and/or interactively predict their child-feeding and pursuit of child-related obesity risk information. Higher risk perceptions were associated with healthier feeding intentions and more information seeking. More incremental (malleable) beliefs predicted healthier feeding intentions and greater pursuit of environmental, but not genetic, information. Contrary to hypotheses, the influence of implicit theories and risk perceptions were primarily independent; however, more incremental beliefs predicted less “junk food” feeding among only parents with lower perceived risk.
BahreynianMQorbaniMKhaniabadiBM, et al. (2017) Association between obesity and parental weight status in children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology9(2): 111–117.
2.
BassettRLGinisKAM (2011) Risky business: The effects of an individualized health information intervention on health risk perceptions and leisure time physical activity among people with spinal cord injury. Disability and Health Journal4(3): 165–176.
3.
BenkertRCuevasAThompsonHS, et al. (2019) Ubiquitous yet unclear: A systematic review of medical mistrust. Behavioral Medicine45(2): 86–101.
4.
BirbilisMMoschonisGMougiosV, et al. (2013) Obesity in adolescence is associated with perinatal risk factors, parental BMI and sociodemographic characteristics. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition67(1): 115–121.
5.
BrewerNTChapmanGBGibbonsFX, et al. (2007) Meta-analysis of the relationship between risk perception and health behavior: The example of vaccination. Health Psychology26(2): 136–145.
6.
BurnetteJL (2006) Implicit Theories of Weight Management: A Social Cognitive Approach to Motivation. Richmond, VA: Virginia Commonwealth University.
7.
BurnetteJL (2010) Implicit theories of body weight: Entity beliefs can weigh you down. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin36(3): 410–422.
8.
BurnetteJLFinkelEJ (2012) Buffering against weight gain following dieting setbacks: An implicit theory intervention. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology48(3): 721–725.
9.
ChaeJ (2015) A three-factor cancer-related mental condition model and its relationship with cancer information use, cancer information avoidance, and screening intention. Journal of Health Communication20(10): 1133–1142.
10.
ChenJATutwilerMS (2017) Implicit theories of ability and self-efficacy. Zeitschrift für Psychologie225: 127–136.
11.
ClaassenMAKleinOBratanovaB, et al. (2019) A systematic review of psychosocial explanations for the relationship between socioeconomic status and body mass index. Appetite132: 208–221.
12.
De CastellaKByrneD (2015) My intelligence may be more malleable than yours: The revised implicit theories of intelligence (self-theory) scale is a better predictor of achievement, motivation, and student disengagement. European Journal of Psychology of Education30(3): 245–267.
13.
DijkstraA (2014) The persuasive effects of personalization through: Name mentioning in a smoking cessation message. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction24(5): 393–411.
14.
DweckCSChiuCYHongYY (1995) Implicit theories and their role in judgments and reactions: A word from two perspectives. Psychological Inquiry6(4): 267–285.
15.
EhrlingerJBurnetteJLParkJ, et al. (2017) Incremental theories of weight predict lower consumption of high- calorie, high-fat foods. Journal of Applied Social Psychology47(6): 320–330.
16.
FerrerRAKleinWM (2015) Risk perceptions and health behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology5: 85–89.
17.
FrühbeckGKiortsisDNCatalánV (2018) Precision medicine: Diagnosis and management of obesity. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology6(3): 164–166.
18.
GhassemiMBerneckerKBrandstätterV (2020) “Take care, honey!”: People are more anxious about their significant others’ risk behavior than about their own. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology86: 103879.
19.
GoranMI (1998) Measurement issues related to studies of childhood obesity: assessment of body composition, body fat distribution, physical activity, and food intake. Pediatrics101(Supplement 2): 505–518.
20.
HayJLMcCaulKDMagnanRE (2006) Does worry about breast cancer predict screening behaviors? A meta-analysis of the prospective evidence. Preventive Medicine42(6): 401–408.
21.
HeslehurstNVieiraRAkhterZ, et al. (2019) The association between maternal body mass index and child obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS Medicine16(6): e1002817.
22.
HowellJLShepperdJA (2012) Reducing information avoidance through affirmation. Psychological Science23(2): 141–145.
23.
HowellJLShepperdJA (2013) Reducing health-information avoidance through contemplation. Psychological Science24(9): 1696–1703.
24.
HwangHHawkinsRPingreeS (2008) Interplay of negative emotion and health self-efficacy on the use of health information and its outcomes. Communication Research35(3): 358–381.
25.
ImesCCLewisFM (2014) Family history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), perceived CVD risk, and health-related behavior: A review of the literature. The Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing29(2): 108.
26.
InokuchiMMatsuoNTakayamaJI, et al. (2011) BMI z-score is the optimal measure of annual adiposity change in elementary school children. Annals of Human Biology38(6): 747–751.
27.
KainAMuellerCGolianuBJ, et al. (2021) The impact of parental health mindset on postoperative recovery in children. Pediatric Anesthesia31: 298–308.
28.
KimHSAhnJNoJK (2012) Applying the health belief model to college students’ health behavior. Nutrition Research and Practice6(6): 551–558.
29.
KleinWMPFerrerRA (2018) On being more amenable to threatening risk messages concerning close others (vis-à-vis the self). Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin44(10): 1411–1423.
30.
KoehlyLMMorrisBASkapinskyK, et al. (2015) Evaluation of the families SHARE workbook: An educational tool outlining disease risk and healthy guidelines to reduce risk of heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer and colorectal cancer. BMC Public Health15(1): 120.
31.
LeeSYHwangHHawkinsR, et al. (2008) Interplay of negative emotion and health self-efficacy on the use of health information and its outcomes. Communication Research35(3): 358–381.
32.
LeeTJCameronLDWünscheB, et al. (2011) A randomized trial of computer-based communications using imagery and text information to alter representations of heart disease risk and motivate protective behaviour. British Journal of Health Psychology16(1): 72–91.
33.
LüfteneggerMChenJA (2017) Conceptual issues and assessment of implicit theories. Zeitschrift für Psychologie225(2): 99–106.
34.
MadeoACTercyakKPTariniBA, et al. (2014) Effects of undergoing multiplex genetic susceptibility testing on parent attitudes towards testing their children. Annals of Behavioral Medicine47(3): 388–394.
35.
MatthesBStoegerH (2018) Influence of parents’ implicit theories about ability on parents’ learning-related behaviors, children’s implicit theories, and children’s academic achievement. Contemporary Educational Psychology54: 271–280.
36.
McBrideCMPerskySWagnerLK, et al. (2013) Effects of providing personalized feedback of child’s obesity risk on mothers’ food choices using a virtual reality buffet. International Journal of Obesity37(10): 1322–1327.
37.
MelnykDShepperdJA (2012) Avoiding risk information about breast cancer. Annals of Behavioral Medicine44(2): 216–224.
38.
MillerTMAbdel-MaksoudMFCraneLA, et al. (2008) Effects of social approval bias on self-reported fruit and vegetable consumption: a randomized controlled trial. Nutrition Journal7(1): 8.
39.
MooreESWilkieWLDesrochersDM (2016) All in the family? Parental roles in the epidemic of childhood obesity. Journal of Consumer Research43(5): 824–859.
40.
MooreLCHarrisCVBradlynAS (2012) Exploring the relationship between parental concern and the management of childhood obesity. Maternal and Child Health Journal16(4): 902–908.
41.
NepperMJChaiW (2016) Parents’ barriers and strategies to promote healthy eating among school-age children. Appetite103: 157–164.
42.
OromHSchofieldEKiviniemiMT, et al. (2021) Agency beliefs are associated with lower health information avoidance. Health Education Journal80: 272–286.
43.
ParentMCAlquistJL (2016) Born fat: The relations between weight changeability beliefs and health behaviors and physical health. Health Education & Behavior43(3): 337–346.
44.
PerskySYaremychHEGoldringMR, et al. (2021) Investigating the efficacy of genetic, environmental, and multifactorial risk information when communicating obesity risk to parents of young children. Annals of Behavioral Medicine55: 720–733.
45.
PersoskieAFerrerRAKleinWMP (2014) Association of cancer worry and perceived risk with doctor avoidance: an analysis of information avoidance in a nationally representative US sample. Journal of Behavioral Medicine37(5): 977–987.
46.
SandersonSCPerskySMichieS (2010) Psychological and behavioral responses to genetic test results indicating increased risk of obesity: Does the causal pathway from gene to obesity matter?Public Health Genomics13(1): 34–47.
47.
SchüzNSchüzBEidM (2013) When risk communication backfires: Randomized controlled trial on self-affirmation and reactance to personalized risk feedback in high-risk individuals. Health Psychology32(5): 561–570.
48.
SeburgEMKunin-BatsonASensoMM, et al. (2014) Concern about child weight among parents of children at-risk for obesity. Health Behavior and Policy Review1(3): 197–208.
49.
SheeranPHarrisPREptonT (2014) Does heightening risk appraisals change people’s intentions and behavior? A meta-analysis of experimental studies. Psychological Bulletin140(2): 511–543.
50.
SmithTMCallowayEEPinardCA, et al. (2017) Using secondary 24-hour dietary recall data to estimate daily dietary factor intake from the FLASHE study dietary screener. American Journal of Preventive Medicine52(6): 856–862.
51.
SpillMKCallahanEHShapiroMJ, et al. (2019) Caregiver feeding practices and child weight outcomes: A systematic review. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition109(Supplement_1): 990S–1002S.
52.
TaberJMKleinWMPPerskyS, et al. (2017) Interest in and reactions to genetic risk information: The role of implicit theories and self-affirmation. Social Science & Medicine190: 101–110.
53.
TercyakKPHensley AlfordSEmmonsKM, et al. (2011) Parents’ attitudes toward pediatric genetic testing for common disease risk. Pediatrics127(5): e1288–e1295.
54.
ThomasFNBurnetteJLHoytCL (2019) Mindsets of health and healthy eating intentions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology49(6): 372–380.
55.
WardZJLongMWReschSC, et al. (2017) Simulation of growth trajectories of childhood obesity into adulthood. New England Journal of Medicine377(22): 2145–2153.
56.
WeinsteinNDRothmanAJNicolichM (1998) Use of correlational data to examine the effects of risk perceptions on precautionary behavior. Psychology and Health13(3): 479–501.
57.
WrightDRLozanoPDawson-HahnE, et al. (2017) Parental optimism about childhood obesity-related disease risks. International Journal of Obesity41(10): 1467–1472.
58.
YanJWeiJZhaoD, et al. (2018) Communicating online diet-nutrition information and influencing health behavioral intention: The role of risk perceptions, problem recognition, and situational motivation. Journal of Health Communication23(7): 624–633.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
