Role of health literacy in informing children's conceptualizations of health, healthy bodies, and health practices: Findings from a qualitative study

In a society troubled by rising rates of childhood obesity, common practice has been to educate young people about the dangers of excess weight gain and the need for regular exercise and a healthy diet. While this approach has achieved some measure of success, there is also a growing body of evidence suggesting that narrowly defining ‘health’ in terms of body size can contribute to the stigmatization of ‘fat’ bodies as well as disordered eating practices. Within this context, we examine the role of health literacy in informing children’s conceptualizations of health, healthy bodies, and health practices. Despite childhood being a critically important time for assessment of and efforts to improve health literacy (i.e., before problematic health attitudes and behaviors, including those related to weight, are adopted), health literacy remains largely unexplored in children. To fill this knowledge gap, a qualitative research study is being conducted with 25-30 students in 3rd-6th grades at a public elementary school located in the mid-Atlantic region. Data is being collected over two phases. The first phase includes conducting one-on-one interviews and facilitating a drawing project to elicit children’s conceptualizations of health, healthy bodies, and health practices. The second phase involves conducting one-on-one interviews to explore children’s functional, communicative, and critical health literacy. This presentation will include our research findings, which can be applied towards the development of health promotion programs that offer a broader perspective on well-being and address the aspects of health literacy which inform children’s conceptualizations of health, healthy bodies, and health practices.