Mothers, Fathers, and Daughters: Dieting and disordered eating

Weight-related attitudes and behaviors ofadolescent boys and girls who are encouraged to diet by their mothers

“…23 However, present study findings conflict with much of the research to date. The present study found only one difference (caring about controlling weight) between the weight-control practices of girls who were or were not encouraged to diet.…”

“…22 These studies did not include the parents' own report of encouraging their child to diet or making comments about their child's weight. One study of adolescent girls that did assess both child and parent reports of parental comments about daughter's weight 23 found that dieting was associated with girls' reports, but not parents' reports, of mother's comments about weight. None of these studies included boys as participants.…”

Parental attitudes, body image disturbance and disordered eating amongst adolescents and young adults: A review

“…Several studies have reported findings that do not, or only partially lend support the modelling theory (Byely, Archibald, Graber, & Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Kanakis & Thelen, 1995;Keel et al, 1997;McKinley, 1999;Ogden & Steward, 2000;Usmiani & Daniluk, 1993, Wertheim et al, 2002. These failures to replicate the relationship between attitudes towards weight and eating behaviours in parents and offspring could be in part due to sample size, and age: the studies conducted by Byely et al (2000), Kanakis and Thelen (1995), Keel et al (1997), Ogden and Stward (2000) all involving fewer than 115 participants, and mean age in the samples used by Usmiani and Daniluk (1993) and Wertheim et al (2002), being of 12.5 and 12.81 years old, respectively.…”

“…Amongst daughters there has been evidence of a relation between levels of body dissatisfaction and levels of maternal body dissatisfaction (Elfhag & Linné, 2005;Fulkerson, McGuire, Neumark-Sztainer, Story, French, & Peery, 2002;Keery et al, 2006;Kichler & Crowther, 2001, McKinley, 1999Usmiani & Daniluk, 1993), and paternal body dissatisfaction (Keel et al, 1997). Regarding the modelling effects of dieting amongst daughters, there has been little support.…”

Parents' reports of the body shape and feeding habits of 36‐month‐old children: An investigation of gender differences

“…Thelen and Cormier (1995) have also reported that mothers who encourage their children to lose weight are likely to have daughters (but not sons) who desire to be thinner, have higher body weights, and engage in increased amounts of dieting. Fathers, too, have been shown to primarily influence their daughters' body dissatisfaction rates (Keel, Heatherton, Harnden, & Hornig, 1997).…”