Abstract
BackgroundThe aim of this paper is to explore the relationships between mothers’ report of parental weight talk about her daughter, herself, and others, and adolescent girls’ weight-related behaviors and cognitions among a socio-demographically diverse population of mothers and their adolescent daughters.MethodsData were drawn from the baseline assessment of 218 mother/adolescent daughter dyads. Mothers completed survey items regarding the frequency of weight talk by parents, and girls completed survey items assessing outcomes including body dissatisfaction, depressive symptomology, use of extreme weight control methods, and binge eating.ResultsMore frequent comments to daughters about their weight were associated with higher depressive symptomology (p = 0.041), greater prevalence of extreme weight control behaviors (p = 0.040), and greater prevalence of binge eating (p = 0.048) among girls after adjustment for socio-demographic characteristics and girls’ standardized body mass index (BMI). For example, among girls whose parents never commented on their weight, 4.2% reported use of any extreme weight control behaviors, while 23.2% of girls whose parents frequently commented on their weight reported use of any of these behaviors. Mothers’ more frequent talk about their own weight, shape, or size was associated with lower self-worth (p = 0.007) and higher depressive symptomology (p = 0.004) among girls.ConclusionsFrequent parental weight talk as perceived by mothers was associated with adolescent girls’ use of harmful weight control methods and poor psychological health, while no associations were found between weight talk and girls’ use of healthful weight control strategies. Interventions that help parents create a family environment that supports healthful activities while reducing weight-related talk may be particularly effective in decreasing the prevalence of harmful outcomes among adolescent girls.
Highlights
The aim of this paper is to explore the relationships between mothers’ report of parental weight talk about her daughter, herself, and others, and adolescent girls’ weight-related behaviors and cognitions among a socio-demographically diverse population of mothers and their adolescent daughters
Direct weight talk, or comments directed toward the adolescent regarding their weight and dieting, have been found to be associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, preoccupation with weight loss, and unhealthy weight control behaviors in crosssectional studies among adolescent girls [4,5,6,7,11]
Greater frequency of parents’ comments to their daughter regarding her weight, a measure of direct weight talk, was associated with higher levels of girls’ depression (p = 0.041), a higher prevalence of using at least one extreme weight control behavior (p = 0.040), and a higher prevalence of binge eating with loss of control (p = 0.048)
Summary
The aim of this paper is to explore the relationships between mothers’ report of parental weight talk about her daughter, herself, and others, and adolescent girls’ weight-related behaviors and cognitions among a socio-demographically diverse population of mothers and their adolescent daughters. [8,9,10]) studies have examined the potential roles of parental behavior and parent–child interactions around weight, body shape and size, and dieting. The pervasive cultural importance placed on slenderness for girls may be further emphasized through mothers’ modeling of weight-related beliefs and behaviors through direct and indirect weight talk [16]. These environmental factors of social norms and parental behavior modeling may contribute to girls’ personal beliefs about her body and weight, as well as general psycho-social health, which in turn influence her weight-related behaviors
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