“There are days when I…”
She continues, “They often attribute events to themselves. They use the pronoun ‘I’ a lot. In general, people use the expression: “some days…” whereas they tend to say: “some days I”. The psychologist underlines the fact that short sentences are predominantly used and presented as facts. “When they are asked why they are as they are, they usually reply by using short sentences or use words that are heavy with meaning such as ‘my mother’s illness’, ‘my rape’, ‘the death of my little sister’. They do not say: ‘The death of my sister made me very sad to the point that I can no longer go to school’. Their speech is very rigid and the negative life events they mention are predominant”. Their life stories are also punctuated by individual people (father, mother…) and words with a negative connotation (suicide, illness, hospitalization, divorce, death, conflict, separation…)
In the light of the results of this comparative study on depression, Aurore Boulard and Jean-Marie Gauthier wanted to go further by applying the same methodology to other pathologies such as obesity. This is still a very widespread problem. More than 43 million children throughout the world suffer from being overweight. In Belgium, although estimates vary, it is generally thought that around 10% of youngsters are concerned.
Dad, mum, you![recit jeunes]( "recit jeunes.")
The two psychologists from Liege, together with their colleague Aurore Jadin, have just published a scientific article focussing on the life stories of seven obese teenagers. “We wanted to see whether they talked about themselves in a different way to normal or depressed youngsters”, explains Aurore Boulard. “Because it is an illness with a noticeable effect upon the body and we know that at that age, the body is important and can impact on self-esteem, relationships with others and extra-curricular activites…”
The same basic question was asked for the first study (how did you become the way you are today?), and the same procedure was followed, (transcribed and analyzed oral statements by means of a computer program). But the results are different. While the adolescents of the control group often use ‘we’ and depressed adolescents use ‘I ‘, obese adolescents often use ‘you’ (“the love you get or you do not get”, “The people we frequent change you a lot”, “When you have parents that are less loving, you too will be different”…) It is a more general discussion, less self-affirming, less personal and less inclusive.
The subject of family is also mentioned a lot, very often by mentioning individual persons. Words such as ‘dad’ and ‘mum’ rather than ‘father’ and ‘mother’ tend to be used. This tendency confirms the results of previous research which demonstrated that obese teenagers seem to be more attached to their family and dependency of the child on the parents is accentuated.
Contrary to depressed youngsters who define themselves as such, their obese counterparts do not mention their illness even though they are being cared for in hospital. On the other hand, food occupies an important place in their personal stories. Happy or difficult moments are placed in a food-related context. The verb ‘eat’ recurs frequently while it is completely absent in the control group of teenagers.
Food almost becomes a character in their life stories. “Their stories are very much structured in relation to food, it is an important subject of preoccupation, remarks Jean-Marie Gauthier. “We thought this was a stereotype, but it proved to be true. These youngsters do not only speak about food but they mention it a lot more than the other groups. You get the impression from the word associations that there is a connection with pleasure”.
