Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Reports indicate that Canadian youth are increasing in size and fatness resulting in an obesity epidemic. This epidemic has generated interest in bariatric/weight loss surgery for youth and the implementation as a potential weight management intervention. Given the limited research on this topic, the purpose of this study is to conduct a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of texts focusing on youth weight loss surgery. I propose a CDA of: scholarly texts (e.g.: scientific journal articles), media texts (e.g.: advertisement), and texts from interviews with bariatric surgeons. To determine the effects of discourses present within these texts, I will conduct interviews with over weight youth. A search of databases will be done to locate articles on youth weight loss surgery and the analysis will map the scientific discourses on this issue and its intersection with other bodily (e.g., discourses of obesity) and social discourses (e.g., discourses of gender). Interviews with bariatric surgeons will explore their perceptions and experiences with youth weight loss surgery as well as how they promote their services in the media. A Google text and image search will be conducted to map the textual and visual representations of youth weight loss surgery in digital media as well as the discourses they re-articulate. Interviews with overweight youth referred for weight management will explore their perceptions of youth weight loss surgery and their constructions and experiences of their bodies and weight management. The expected outcomes are to provide knowledge on how youth weight loss surgery is represented within scientific/medical communities and digital media, and the consequences on youth. The results can raise awareness of professionals who interact with overweight youth and provide ways to improve current discourses surrounding youth weight loss surgery in the goal to improve their health.