Table 1.

Selected Questions from the Focus Group Discussion Guide on Perceptions, Strategies and Suggestions Among Parents of Positive Outlier Children

Topic	Selected Discussion Guide Questions
Perceptions of obesity and  overweight	How would you decide if a child is overweight? How have your views about what a healthy weight is for a child changed over time? Were you ever concerned that your child weighed too much? Why? What concerned you about your child’s weight? Has a health care provider, like your child’s pediatrician or nurse practitioner, ever expressed concern about child’s weight? If so, how did you feel about your provider’s assessment of your child’s weight? Did you agree or disagree? What are some things you think might have caused your child to gain weight?
Potential causes of change in  weight status	What happened that led to a healthier weight for your child and how did these things start to happen? Can you think of a few specific things that might have helped your child achieve a healthier weight? Who specifically made goals regarding your child’s weight? What were they and how did you come up with them? How did you measure success for your child as you tried to achieve these goals? In other words, how did you keep track and know that things were headed in the right direction? What were some challenges related to these changes? What helped your children to overcome them? Did any of you make changes as parents or together as a family that affected your child’s weight and health? What kind of changes have you made in scheduling or family rules?
Sustaining change in weight  status	What are some things that are helping your child to stay at a healthier weight? Does anybody or anything make it difficult for your child to stay at a healthier weight? How do you or your child deal with these difficulties to maintaining a healthier weight?
Role of the health care  system	Now I’d like to hear about any discussions you’ve had with a health care provider, like your child’s pediatrician or nurse practitioner, about weight loss and weight maintenance. Who started this conversation and what was the conversation like?
Role of schools	What goes on at school that might affect your child’s weight?
Role of community	What are some community resources (e.g. parks, boys and girls clubs, pools, basketball courts, fields) that have helped your child stay at a healthier weight?
Ideal obesity risk-reduction  intervention	How do you think we could help other parents/families with getting their children to a healthier weight?