Maternal influences on body satisfaction in Black and White girls aged 9 and 10: The NHLBI Growth and Health Study (NGHS)

Abstract

Obesity, an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, is more prevalent in the U.S. among Black than White women. Tolerance for obesity may be learned in childhood before weight gain begins. Greater tolerance for or approval of heavy daughters' body build and eating habits among Black mothers compared to White mothers could result in higher levels of body satisfaction in heavy Black daughters compared to heavy White daughters. This paper reports cross-sectional data from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Growth and Health Study on maternal reactions to daughters' body build and eating habits and on daughters' body satisfaction for 1,652 Black and White female parent/guardians and their daughters, aged nine and ten years at baseline. Results showed that Black mothers were less tolerant than White mothers of body build and habits among moderately heavy daughters, but Black mothers were more tolerant than White mothers of the build and habits of their heaviest daughters (p<0.001). However, maternal disapproval of their build and habits had little effect on daughters' body satisfaction (2.2% of variation explained). Black girls had higher body satisfaction scores than White girls (p<0.01). While body satisfaction scores decreased with increasing body mass index, they decreased less for Black girls than for White girls. The largest proportion of variation in daughters' body satisfaction (21.0%) was explained by race, body mass index, household income, and a race-body mass index interaction.