Carrie Fister

Awareness of effective weight management strategies is necessary to prepare exercise science students for future work with obesity.  Exercise science faculty developed a course related to exercise as a therapeutic tool and options available for weight loss. Purpose: This study investigates students’ views of weight management and obesity which can be a difficult task utilizing traditional methods such as Likert scale surveys. Methods: To investigate students’ views relative to the course content, Q Methodology, which is a mixed method research approach, was used at the beginning and at the end of the course. Students completed a Q-sort, ranking 44 statements related to obesity in accordance to their own points of view. The pretest/posttest design enabled an opportunity to determine if course goals were accomplished and if students’ perceptions related to obesity were transformed. Results: Factor analysis of pre-course sorts revealed students possessed a naïve singular view of weight related concepts.  Analysis of sorts at course completion resulted in a two-factor solution revealing changes in perspective; some students took on a health professional type of view while others demonstrated anti-fat views.  Conclusion: The findings revealed key variables that should be addressed in curricula involving therapeutic obesity interventions.  Improved curriculum based on these results should better encourage students to develop broad comprehension of multifactorial causes and treatment for weight management and obesity.  Implementing the use of Q Methodology may serve as a valuable asset to measure and evaluate subjectivity of obesity discrimination.  Anti-fat attitudes among exercise science students may influence future clients’ potential achievements.