Ellen Pudney

Eastern Virginia Medical School | EVMS · Division of Community Health and Research (CHR)

Parental communication about body weight can influence children's emotional well-being and eating behaviors. However, little is known about the role of parental self-stigma concerning weight and social position variables (ie, race/ethnicity, income, and gender) in weight communication. This study examined how parents' self-stigmatization for their...

Parental weight talk with children can have negative consequences; yet, it is not well understood why parents engage in it and if demographic differences exist. Utilizing the extant qualitative literature, we developed two scales to quantitatively examine parental reasons for engaging in and avoiding weight talk. An Internet sample of 408 US parent...

Background Little is known about parent and adolescent motivations for engaging in weight communication. Objectives To assess parent and adolescent motivations for engaging in, or avoiding, weight communication, and whether these reasons differed across sex, race/ethnicity, weight, and engagement in weight management. Methods Independent samples...

Background Health messages framed within the context of controlling body weight can negatively impact motivation to make health changes. However, it is unknown how health messages featuring childhood obesity affects parental “weight talk” behaviors (e.g., encouraging a child to lose weight). Objective Assess the effects of exposure to parent-targe...

People react to, and are affected by, stigmatizing experiences in different ways. The current study examined different reactions to weight stigma to identify who may be vulnerable to lasting distress from these experiences. Using a mixed methods approach, this study compared qualitative descriptions of reactions to experiences of weight stigma in c...

Background As many as 40% of adults have experienced weight stigma, yet little is known about why some individuals are more distressed by weight stigma than others. Qualitative research is limited in this field but may help inform this understudied question. Objective Using a mixed method design, we compared individuals who described lasting impac...

Background Many parents engage in “weight talk” with their child, such as encouraging their child to lose weight or making comments about their own weight or others' weight. What parents say to their children about weight can affect children's well‐being, yet little is known about parental characteristics that may be at play regarding this common p...

Objective: To evaluate the reliability of the Market Basket Assessment Tool (MBAT) for assessing the availability of fruits and vegetables, low-fat or nonfat dairy and eggs, lean meats, whole-grain products, and seeds, beans, and nuts in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-authorized retail environments. Methods: Different trained raters u...