Child versus Parent Report of Parental Influences on Children's Weight-related Attitudes and Behaviors

Abstract

Parent weight-related behaviors, both direct and indirect, are positively associated with child's weight-related attitudes and behaviors.

Gender Differences in Parental Influences on Adolescent Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating

“…It has been shown that parent and offspring reports show some disparity (Haines et al 2008;Keery et al 2006), possibly due to parental concerns about social desirability or over-reporting amongst criticism-sensitive adolescents (Baker et al 2000). However, as previously stated, studies have consistently reported offspring-reports of parental behaviors to be more strongly associated with body shape and eating outcomes than parent-reports (Haines et al 2008;Kanakis and Thelen 1995;Keel et al 1997;Keery et al 2006). Adopting the point of view of the adolescent limits the scope of the results in terms of conclusions to be drawn regarding parental behavior, but in exchange focuses on the variables that demonstrate the strongest relationships.…”

“…In this type of study, offspring-reported data has been reported by a number of studies to be more strongly associated with body shape and eating outcomes than parent-reports (Haines et al 2008;Kanakis and Thelen 1995;Keel et al 1997;Keery et al 2006). All our measures therefore assessed adolescent self-reported perceptions of their parents' attitudes, behaviors and messages.…”

Friends' Dieting and Disordered Eating Behaviors Among Adolescents Five Years Later: Findings From Project EAT

“…Because parents' own dieting behavior has been shown to be associated with adolescents' body satisfaction and dieting behaviors in these and other data [27,28], dieting behavior of the same-sex parent (at Time 1) was included in the present analysis to adjust for this additional social influence. The construct was assessed with one item (''My mother/father.…”

Postdivorce Relationships in Families and Children's Psychosocial Adjustment

“…Several studies have investigated the concurrence of parents and children on reporting children's outcomes, and most of these studies show that children are reliable reporters (e.g., Herjanic, Herjanic, Brown, & Wheatt, 1975;Herjanic & Reich, 1997). Additionally, a recent study found that children's reports of indirect parental behavior are more consistently associated with children's adjustment than parent reports (Haines, Neumark-Sztainer, Hannan, & Robinson-O'Brien, 2008). Furthermore, all research questions were investigated separately for boys and for girls, because several studies have shown gender differences in how children deal with divorce and remarriage (e.g.…”