Against all odds : the resilience of children who live in families with low-income and are obese

Abstract

This study explores the resilience of children who live in families with low-income and are obese. The research question delves into the stories of these children and examines the protective factors in their social and emotional life, in relation to their family and school system. A mixed design of ethnographic and narrative research methods is employed. This included school observations, three observation per child, and six interviews, three with the children and three with their respective main caregiver. Results show that the children are resilient and create ways of belonging in the peer group despite pervasive weight-teasing and social exclusion. Common features of family dynamics and school experiences emerged across the three stories. The triangulation of data from multiple sources, which is unique to the study of childhood obesity in the context of low-income, can generate insight about the interrelated levels of mutual influence of the systems that surround the children, and thus may ameliorate the quality of life of children who live in families with low-income and are obese.