Maternal perceptions of infant’s body weight and childhood obesity in South Africa: a qualitative study in Soweto.
Maternal perceptions of infant’s body weight and childhood obesity in South Africa: a qualitative study in Soweto.
From a socio-anthropological study focusing on maternal body weight perceptions and dietary practices towards infants living in Soweto (South Africa), we studied how lay sociocultural traits may lead to early childhood obesity. Most mothers tended to socially value and normalize fatness. This propensity led mothers, particularly older women at home, to adopt high-calorie feeding practices towards infants, although some mothers tended to question these lay norms. Further works must consider how lay (emic) sociocultural norms in African townships can contradict biomedical (etic) messages, conveying for the community thinness as the acceptable standard, and may expose infants to early obesity.
body weight perceptions, childhood obesity, dietary practices, lay norms, Soweto
277-293
Cohen, Emmanuel
54d61496-8c90-47b4-a8ef-3671bc5fb02f
Slemming, Wiedaad
df5ca240-2702-4079-afe2-c453b7bb1aa3
Wrottesley, Stephanie V.
9c93c674-7f64-413d-b05e-f1c5db19c31a
Prioreschi, Alessandra
04875305-6e91-4199-98bb-8154707060c4
Norris, Shane A.
1d346f1b-6d5f-4bca-ac87-7589851b75a4
19 February 2023
Cohen, Emmanuel
54d61496-8c90-47b4-a8ef-3671bc5fb02f
Slemming, Wiedaad
df5ca240-2702-4079-afe2-c453b7bb1aa3
Wrottesley, Stephanie V.
9c93c674-7f64-413d-b05e-f1c5db19c31a
Prioreschi, Alessandra
04875305-6e91-4199-98bb-8154707060c4
Norris, Shane A.
1d346f1b-6d5f-4bca-ac87-7589851b75a4
Cohen, Emmanuel, Slemming, Wiedaad, Wrottesley, Stephanie V., Prioreschi, Alessandra and Norris, Shane A.
(2023)
Maternal perceptions of infant’s body weight and childhood obesity in South Africa: a qualitative study in Soweto.
Children & Society, 38 (2), .
(doi:10.1111/chso.12689).
Abstract
From a socio-anthropological study focusing on maternal body weight perceptions and dietary practices towards infants living in Soweto (South Africa), we studied how lay sociocultural traits may lead to early childhood obesity. Most mothers tended to socially value and normalize fatness. This propensity led mothers, particularly older women at home, to adopt high-calorie feeding practices towards infants, although some mothers tended to question these lay norms. Further works must consider how lay (emic) sociocultural norms in African townships can contradict biomedical (etic) messages, conveying for the community thinness as the acceptable standard, and may expose infants to early obesity.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Submitted date: 12 February 2022
Accepted/In Press date: 5 January 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 February 2023
Published date: 19 February 2023
Keywords:
body weight perceptions, childhood obesity, dietary practices, lay norms, Soweto
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 505588
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/505588
ISSN: 0951-0605
PURE UUID: bc7427ce-4f96-4b91-8a1b-ec679385f86a
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 14 Oct 2025 16:44
Last modified: 15 Oct 2025 02:01
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Emmanuel Cohen
Author:
Wiedaad Slemming
Author:
Stephanie V. Wrottesley
Author:
Alessandra Prioreschi
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
