Maternal influence in the development of body image and dieting in young girls

Abstract

Dieting and eating disorders are serious and increasingly prevalent problems in today's Western world. These behaviors can lead to both serious medical and psychological problems, particularly in young, growing children. Negative body image can often lead to dieting, which, in turn, can lead to an eating disorder. While many factors have been found to be associated with negative body image, past research has failed to examine either the relative strengths or the independent contributions of these factors. Nor has past research examined how some factors might indirectly, as opposed to directly, be related to body image and dieting. The purpose of this research was to address these shortcomings by proposing a more comprehensive model of the development of negative body image and dieting in young girls. Multiple regression analyses found that daughter's body image, mother's dieting, and daughter's self-esteem predicted dieting in the daughters; while daughter's self-esteem, daughter's reflected appraisals, and mother's body image predicted daughter's body image. The daughter's reflected appraisals were predicted by daughter's self-esteem and the mother's actual appraisals.