Framing strategies to avoid mother-blame in communicating the origins of chronic disease

L.B. Winett, A.B. Wulf and L. Wallack

American Journal of Public Health, 2016, vol. 106, issue 8, 1369-1373

Abstract: Evolving research in epigenetics and the developmental origins of health and disease offers tremendous promise in explaining how the social environment, place, and resources available to us have enduring effects on our health. Troubling from a communications perspective, however, is the tendency in framing the science to hold mothers almost uniquely culpable for their offspring's later disease risk. The purpose of this article is to add to the conversation about avoiding this unintended outcome by (1) discussing the importance of cognitive processing and issue frames, (2) describing framing challenges associated with communicating about developmental origins of health and disease and offering principles to address them, and (3) providing examples of conceptualmetaphors thatmay be helpful in telling this complex and contextual story for public health. © 2013 American Public Health Association.

Keywords: causality; chronic disease; cognition; epigenetics; female; human; interpersonal communication; mother; organization and management; pregnancy; prenatal exposure; psychology; public health; social determinants of health, Causality; Chronic Disease; Cognition; Communication; Epigenomics; Female; Humans; Mothers; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; Public Health; Social Determinants of Health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2016.303239_8

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303239

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