Latina immigrant mother–daughter communication about their body self-esteem and weight dissatisfaction: An exploratory video-observational study.

Abstract

Forty-six Latina immigrant mothers and their mostly U.S.-raised daughters between the ages of 12 and 17 years were videotaped having a 5-min 1-on-1 conversation about "how they feel about their bodies." We coded instances of positive and negative maternal messages to examine how the prevalence of these message types was associated with the mothers' and daughters' expressed feelings about their bodies. Mothers and daughters who expressed feeling good about their bodies had affiliative conversations, with mothers conveying body esteem-enhancing messages and few critical comments to their daughters about their body sizes and shapes. Mothers who expressed that they were dissatisfied with their own weight gave their daughters few compliments, few body esteem-enhancing messages, and made critical remarks. Girls who expressed weight dissatisfaction disclosed instances of peer criticism and their desires to have similar body shapes to those of their friends. In response, their mothers gave their daughters positive reassuring messages that their bodies were more than acceptable. In addition, the mothers relied on teasing remarks to assuage their daughters' negative feelings about their bodies which resulted in the girls being amused. More maternal teasing was associated with mothers giving more compliments and body esteemenhancing messages, suggesting that teasing may not be detrimental in all cultures.

Family weight teasing, ethnicity and acculturation: Associations with well-being among Latinx, Hmong, and Somali Adolescents

“…Family experiences around weight and food, such as family meals and feeding practices [60,61], weight talk [62,63], encouragement to diet [64,65], and weight-based teasing and labeling [6,7,11] have been associated with weightrelated outcomes and emotional health, consistent with present findings. However, to the best of our knowledge, little of this work has focused specifically on youth from various immigrant communities [66,67]. The current study underscores that these groups are not immune to weight-based teasing and its adverse impact on health; these communities should be a focus of increased research attention, as important questions remain.…”

“…For example, some research suggests that norms and practices around weight and eating behaviors may differ for new immigrants in contrast to young people born in the U.S. In particular, Romo and Mireles-Rios found that maternal weight-based teasing was associated with communicating messages that enhance body image among Latina youth [67], contrasting with most findings on this topic. Thus, more research is needed to understand what types of comments or behaviors encompass "teasing" from family members, and the cultural values which may influence how young people interpret weight-related comments from their families.…”

Motivations for engaging in or avoiding conversations about weight: Adolescent and parent perspectives

“…Surprisingly little research attention has focused on why parents choose to engage in, or avoid, talking about weight with their children. To date, insights about parental motivations come from primarily qualitative evidence 8,18–22 . For example, findings from interviews with primarily Black/African American parents ( N = 47%, 90% female) found that parents talked to their child(ren) about weight because of a health professional's concern about their child's health; their own parental concerns; or to ‘strengthen their child's skin’ so that their child would not be as upset by being teased about their weight from others 20 .…”

“…To date, insights about parental motivations come from primarily qualitative evidence. 8,[18][19][20][21][22] For example, findings from interviews with primarily Black/African American parents (N = 47%, 90% female) found that parents talked to their child(ren) about weight because of a health professional's concern about their child's health; their own parental concerns; or to 'strengthen their child's skin' so that their child would not be as upset by being teased about their weight from others. 20 Parents who avoided talking about weight did so because they wanted their child(ren) to demonstrate good manners and respect for others (e.g., because of parental views that it is rude to comment on a person's weight), or because of their own previous negative experiences of weight communication from family or friends prompted them to prevent similar experiences for their child.…”

Sociocultural attitudes as a moderator of the relations between negative eating and weight messages from family members and Latinas' body image shame

“…In a study with young women, the researchers found that young women reported engaging in fat talk the most with their mothers (MacDonald et al, 2015). When young women engage in fat talk, it is often reciprocated with positive reassuring messages and this in turn may help buffer against poor outcomes (Romo & Mireles-Rios, 2016;Katrevich, Register, & Aruguete, 2014).…”