Health and Weight Beliefs and Behaviours of Pre-Service Teachers: Considerations and Implications for a Health Promotion Perspective in Teacher Education

This project explored primary and secondary pre-service teachers’ (i.e., bachelor of education [B.Ed.] students) beliefs about health behaviours as well as health and weight during their university education at a large research-intensive university in Alberta. Although many studies claim that there is a need for teacher education in the areas of health and weight, recommendations for what such curricula might include are lacking. The present study was conducted with 226 pre-service teachers. Data included participants’ self-reported height, weight, body satisfaction, health promoting behaviours, implicit weight bias, and current weight loss and muscle gain attempts. Results suggest many pre-service teachers have concerns about their weight and shape, and exhibit weight bias. Teacher education focusing on body satisfaction, weight bias, exercise behaviour, and stress management may be beneficial for pre-service teachers to better prepare them to instruct about as well as model health attitudes and behaviors to their future students.Ce projet a exploré les croyances de stagiaires au primaire et au secondaire (c.-à-d. des étudiants au Baccalauréat en Éducation) sur les comportements liés à la santé, la santé et le poids pendant leur parcours dans une grande université albertaine centrée sur la recherche. Si plusieurs études affirment que les enseignants doivent être formés dans le domaine de la santé et du poids, les recommandations quant à ce que pourrait inclure une telle formation sont inexistantes. L’étude, réalisée auprès de 226 stagiaires, a demandé aux participants de fournir des données relatives aux éléments suivants : taille, poids, satisfaction à l’égard de leur corps, comportements favorables à la santé, partialité implicite envers les gens présentant un excès de poids, perte de poids actuelle et tentatives d’augmenter la masse musculaire. Les résultats indiquent que plusieurs stagiaires sont préoccupés par leur poids et la forme de leur corps, et qu’ils montrent un préjugé face aux personnes avec de l’embonpoint. Une formation qui porterait sur la satisfaction à l’égard de son corps, la partialité envers les gens présentant un excès de poids, les comportements liés à l’exercice physique et la gestion du stress pourrait s’avérer bénéfique pour les stagiaires, qui seraient ainsi mieux préparer pour enseigner à leurs élèves des attitudes et des comportements liés à la santé, et pour en être de bons modèles.

Adapting Descriptive Psychological Phenomenology to Include Dyadic Interviews: Practical Considerations for Data Analysis

Dyadic interviews are an approach to qualitative data collection designed to understand the meaning pairs of individuals make from experiences. The greatest benefit of dyadic interviews, and perhaps a reason for their gaining momentum in the literature, is that they encourage participants to interact, resulting in detailed and complex descriptions of phenomena. However, dyadic interviews pose challenges to qualitative researchers. Researchers must figure out how to account for the presence of two interviewees, any differences in perspective, and interactions. Unfortunately, no known study demonstrates how the interactions of dyadic interviews can be analyzed in accordance with a methodological approach. Rather, researchers tend to observe pre-existing methods without direct mention of modification for conducting and analyzing dyadic interviews. Thus, the degree to which participant interactions are being analyzed in current studies remains unknown. In the following paper, we use Giorgi’s (2009) descriptive psychological phenomenology as an exemplar for how dyadic interviews may be applied to qualitative investigations. The theoretical fit of dyadic interviews with Giorgi’s approach, proposed modifications, and their limitations, are discussed

The Phenomena of Couple Therapy where Weight-Related Concerns are Present: Feminist Considerations and Implications

In the following manuscript-based dissertation, I explore the phenomena of couple therapy with couples where weight-related concerns (WRC) including (a) body-weight and/or food preoccupation, (b) weight-related body dissatisfaction, and/or (c) disordered eating or excessive exercise behaviours (Allison & Baskin, 2009; Neumark-Sztainer, 1995) are present. Three interconnected manuscripts investigate the phenomena, or methods to inquire into the phenomena, from a feminist standpoint (Harding, 2007) epistemology. In manuscript one, I provide a scoping review of the cultural diversity of couples, and WRC included, in research about couple therapy where WRC are present (Tkachuk, Russell-Mayhew, Kassan, Dimitropoulos, & Hayden, 2018). In manuscript two, I propose modifications to Giorgi’s (2009) descriptive psychological phenomenological method for the analysis of dyadic interviews, which includes couple interviews (Tkachuk, Russell-Mayhew, Kassan & Dimitropoulos, 2019). In manuscript three, I report the experiences of couples/individuals who participated in couple therapy where WRC were present. In completing this dissertation, I hope to contribute to a larger discussion about the phenomena of couple therapy where WRC are present. I discuss gaps in the existing literature and several ways researchers may begin to address them. Such an understanding may assist in developing practice recommendations for psychologists in providing couple therapy where WRC are present

Health and Weight Beliefs and Behaviours of Pre-Service Teachers: Considerations and Implications for a Health Promotion Perspective

This project explored pre-service teachers (i.e., bachelor of education [B.Ed.] students) beliefs and behaviours about health and weight during their university education at an Alberta university. Although many studies claim that there is a need for training teachers in the areas of health and weight, recommendations for the specific areas requiring professional development or intervention for teachers are lacking. The present study was conducted with 226 pre-service teachers. Participants’ self-reported height, weight, body satisfaction, health promoting behaviours, implicit weight bias, current weight loss and muscle gain attempts were assessed. Results demonstrated many pre-service teachers have concerns about their weight and their bodies and exhibit weight bias, which may be transferred to their future students. Professional development interventions targeting body satisfaction, weight bias, exercise behaviour, and stress management may be beneficial for pre-service teachers. Such interventions may help to better prepare teachers to teach and model health to their future students