The Professional Counselor | Volume 14, Issue 1 35 I also shared my memos and data analysis process with an external auditor (Hays & McKibben, 2021). The external auditor was a researcher with experience in qualitative research and content familiarity. After the external auditor reviewed the data analysis trail, including the three stages of coding, I reviewed her written feedback and we met to process the feedback. The external auditor offered several pieces of feedback regarding the analytic process, including leaning more into the theory rather than the stories and removing quotes that captured pieces outside of the theory (i.e., removing content rooted in diet culture and body positivity). Feedback was integrated to strengthen the study’s development and explication of the theory based on data. Results This study involved the caregivers and researcher co-constructing the parenting theory while integrating body neutrality concepts. The theory stemmed from the perspectives shared by caregivers who parent in such a way as to promote body acceptance, such as focusing on what our bodies can do for us, avoiding body talk, eating the foods we want to eat, listening to our bodies, not focusing compliments on appearance, etc. As such, the grounded theory below explains caregivers interacting and experiencing body neutral parenting (Charmaz, 2014). The emergent core category was the balancing of internal experiences with external parenting, moving toward body neutral parenting. The emergent core category captured the essence of the theory—parents integrating body neutrality balance internal experiences (e.g., their own relationship with their bodies and food) with external parenting (e.g., their parenting skills of how to handle food in the household). Figure 1 depicts a conceptual diagram of the body neutral parenting grounded theory. The “mobile” emphasizes the movement and interconnectedness within the body neutral parenting process. At the top of the diagram, there is a seesaw balance between the external parenting skills and internal experiences, processing, and regulating. The internal and external experiences teeter and totter and inform one another as a parent integrates body neutrality. The mobile diagram showcases that if one piece moves, the other pieces move as well. To illustrate, if a parent’s external parenting skills move (e.g., a parent no longer says negative things about their body in front of their children), their internal experiences are impacted (e.g., their own unmet childhood mental health needs related to body image are addressed). The core category of balancing internal experiences with external parenting moving toward body neutral parenting included two categories: (a) De-moralizing Food, Bodies, and Movement, and (b) Reprogramming and Re-Parenting. Each of the two emergent categories has associated subcategories. De-moralizing Food, Bodies, and Movement The first category is De-moralizing Food, Bodies, and Movement (n = 10). Within this category, there were three subcategories: De-moralizing Food, De-moralizing Bodies, and De-moralizing Movement. The category embodied acknowledging and countering the large cultural narrative of “good” foods and “bad” foods as well as “good” bodies and “bad” bodies. Participants emphasized the impact of removing the reward and punishment that accompanies the moralization of food, bodies, and movement. As captured by Kimberly, body neutral parenting is about “giving children more of a voice”and trusting them: “When they say that they’re hurt, believing them; when they say that they’re hungry, believing them. Letting them speak for themselves and not speaking for them or for their body. Trusting that they know their body the best.”
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