recent study explored the experience of recipients of both healthy and overweight feedback and identified two separate pathways of response dependent on the feedback received19. Recipients of healthy weight feedback journeyed from pleasure and happiness through affirmation and a process that identifies those that are thought to be different onto ‘othering’; from oneself or the mainstream20, identifying the need for behaviour change amongst recipients of overweight feedback. Meanwhile, recipients of overweight feedback journeyed from shock or disgust with the programme, through denial and self-blame to acceptance, worry and intention to seek help19. Whilst feedback is provided to parents confidentially, letters are received in the same timeframe by parents who are linked by their children’s shared school experience. Anecdotally there is evidence of parents discussing childhood weight, the NCMP, and in some cases, received feedback within this timeframe with fellow parents and peers and via social and mainstream media20, 21, 22. Thus far, evidence regarding the experience parents’ and impact of the NCMP has been based on data gathered from individuals, using interviews and survey data. To our knowledge, no previous study has explored experiences of parents’ the NCMP within a group context; investigating experience within focus group parents’ settings gave us an opportunity to explore and observe how social contexts help shape experiences as well as develop a shared social discourse regarding NCMP written parents’ feedback and childhood weight. Our work addressed the question ‘how do parents collectively report their experience of receiving written feedback from the National Child Measurement Programme?’ Methods Participants The study was conducted in a single Local Authority area in the South West of England where written weight feedback is provided to the parents of all NCMP participants. The NCMP measures all children at mainstream state-maintained schools in their entry (aged 4-5) and exit (aged 10-11) years. Parents or schools can opt out of the programme, but typically around 95% of the eligible population participate9. This study focused on parents of children from the entry stage of the programme in 2014/15 and 2015/16 in order to explore the point at which children are most dependent on parental choices for activity and nutrition24.
recent study explored the experience of recipients of both healthy and overweight feedback and identified two separate pathways of response dependent on the feedback received19. Recipients of healthy weight feedback journeyed from pleasure and happiness through affirmation and onto ‘othering’; a process that identifies those that are thought to be different from oneself or the mainstream20, identifying the need for behaviour change amongst recipients of overweight feedback. Meanwhile, recipients of overweight feedback journeyed from shock or disgust with the programme, through denial and self-blame to acceptance, worry and intention to seek help19. Whilst feedback is provided to parents confidentially, letters are received in the same timeframe by parents who are linked by their children’s shared school experience. Anecdotally there is evidence of parents discussing childhood weight, the NCMP, and in some cases, received feedback within this timeframe with fellow parents and peers and via social and mainstream media20, 21, 22. Thus far, parents’ evidence regarding the experience and impact of the NCMP has been based on data gathered from individuals, using interviews and survey data. To our knowledge, no previous study has explored parents’ experiences of the NCMP within a group context; investigating parents’ experience within focus group settings gave us an opportunity to explore and observe how social contexts help shape parents’ experiences as well as develop a shared social discourse regarding NCMP written feedback and childhood weight. Our work addressed the question ‘how do parents collectively report their experience of receiving written feedback from the National Child Measurement Programme?’ Methods Participants The study was conducted in a single Local Authority area in the South West of England where written weight feedback is provided to the parents of all NCMP participants. The NCMP measures all children at mainstream state-maintained schools in their entry (aged 4-5) and exit (aged 10-11) years. Parents or schools can opt out of the programme, but typically around 95% of the eligible population participate9. This study focused on parents of children from the entry stage of the programme in 2014/15 and 2015/16 in order to explore the point at which children are most dependent on parental choices for activity and nutrition24.