My Sjunnestrand
PhD student at Department of food studies, nutrition and dietetics
- E-mail:
- my.sjunnestrand@ikv.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- BMC
Husargatan 3
752 37 Uppsala - Postal address:
- Box 560
751 22 UPPSALA
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Short presentation
I am a nutritionist and PhD student interested in childhood obesity and stigma. My doctoral thesis aims to explore obesity stigma in young children, with particular focus on the preschool, healthcare and home environment.
Main supervisor: Paulina Nowicka
Co-supervisor: Nicklas Neuman, Kajsa Järvholm, Karin Eli, Ximena Ramos Salas
Keywords
- child health
- childhood obesity
- children
- obesity stigma
- social inequality
Biography
I have previous experience in research aiming at preventing and treating childhood obesity. In 2019, I published my master thesis about child health care nurses experiences of talking about overweight and obesity with parents (Planting a seed - child health care nurses' perceptions of speaking to parents about overweight and obesity, BMC Public Health, 2019). The nurses expressed that many of the barriers to having effective conversations about children's weight related to the stigma attached to overweight and obesity. This finding made me interested in further exploring the causes and consequences of stigma, which is the main focus of my doctoral thesis.
In addition to my interest in childhood obesity and stigma, I have a background in implementation and partnership research.
I was admitted as a PhD student in November 2022 and plan to defend my thesis in 2026.
Research
This text is not available in English, therefore the Swedish version is shown.
Obesitas är en komplex diagnos som uppstår av många olika anledningar. Trots detta fokuserar budskap om hälsa och viktnedgång nästan uteslutande på individens ansvar. Detta leder till ett utbrett viktstigma som genomsyrar hela samhället och drabbar personer med hög vikt i alla åldrar. Även barn utsätts för mobbing och diskriminering på grund av sin kroppsvikt, vilket har svåra konsekvenser för barnets psykiska hälsa. Det har till exempel visat sig att barn som lever med obesitas skattar sin livskvalitet lägre än barn med en cancerdiagnos.
Mycket forskning tyder på att barn redan i treårsåldern tillskriver negativa egenskaper om personer med hög kroppsvikt. Trots detta saknas helt forskning om viktstigma mot barn som är fem år och yngre. Min forskning syftar till att fylla denna kunskapslucka genom att undersöka obesitasstigma hos barn upp till fem år i vardagslivet och i mötet med förskolan och hälso- och sjukvården. Forskningsfrågorna beslyses i huvudsak med kvalitativa metoder.
Publications
Recent publications
- "A balancing act" (2024)
- Fidelity to and Adaptation of Evidence-based Interventions in the Social Work Literature (2023)
- A rocky road but worth the drive (2023)
- Implementing School-Based Mental Health Services (2022)
- Planting a seed - child health care nurses' perceptions of speaking to parents about overweight and obesity (2019)
All publications
Articles
- "A balancing act" (2024)
- Fidelity to and Adaptation of Evidence-based Interventions in the Social Work Literature (2023)
- A rocky road but worth the drive (2023)
- Implementing School-Based Mental Health Services (2022)
- Planting a seed - child health care nurses' perceptions of speaking to parents about overweight and obesity (2019)