Social comparison processes and adults’ judgments of children’s weight and intentions to control children’s weight

To combat rising rates of childhood obesity in the U.S. requires helping parents recognize when their child is overweight or obese. However, parents’ accuracy might be affected by social comparisons, in which parents compare their child to other overweight children, and rationalize that their child is ‘normal’ weight, and therefore, healthy. The aim of the study was to assess whether a photograph of a fictional child impacts a parent’s judgment of their own child’s weight. A nationwide sample of parents (n=517) of children ages 2-12 provided their child’s height and weight, viewed a photograph of an underweight (upward comparison), normal weight (control) or overweight (downward comparison) child, and judged the health of both. Parents inaccurately judged the downward comparison compared to the control and upward comparisons. Further, parents were less accurate in judging their child’s weight when given an upward comparison compared to a control. Intentions to control their children’s weight were unaffected.