Maternal correlates of adolescent girls' eating disorder tendencies

Abstract

Characteristics of the mothers, as well as those of the mother-daughter relationship, among eating disordered populations have been discussed extensively in the clinical literature, although there are few empirical studies with clinical or at risk populations, especially in Japan. According to the studies in other countries, mothers of eating disordered girls were themselves more likely to be eating disordered, and exhibited more traditional gender-role attitudes as well as greater concern about their own appearance than mothers of girls who were not eating disordered. The present study used a questionnaire with 7th and 8th grade girls and their mothers to examine whether similar maternal characteristics would be found in a Japanese population. The results of path analyses showed that mothers' traditional gender-role attitudes and greater concern about their own appearance were both significantly related to the mothers' eating disorder tendencies, which was related to the daughters' eating disorder tendencies, by way of socialization about dieting. The way in which mothers' gender-role attitudes may affect the daughters' eating disorder tendencies differed according to daughters' menarcheal status. For premenarcheal girls, the mother's traditional gender-role attitudes affected her own eating disorder tendencies, which affected the daughter's eating disorder tendencies by way of socialization about dieting. In contrast, for postmenarcheal girls, the mother's traditional gender-role attitudes affected socialization about dieting, without being mediated by the mother's own eating disorder tendencies. For postmenarcheal girls, the mother's eating disorder tendencies had little influence upon socialization about dieting, suggesting the relative importance of other correlates upon the daughter's eating disorder tendencies. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the prevention of eating problems shared among women across generations.

Mothers' Influence on the Body Dissatisfaction and Weight Loss Behaviors of their Preschool‐ to Junior‐High‐School‐Level Daughters: The Case of Japan

“…Some studies have dealt with just one of these aspects (Rodgers, Paxton, & Chabrol, 2009) or have treated them as a combined variable with no distinction between them (van den Berg, Keery, Eisenberg, & Neumark‐Sztainer, 2010; Cordero & Israel, 2009; Mukai, 2010). Nonetheless, there are studies that have examined each of the two influence aspects separately.…”

“…By their middle years of elementary school, children are developing secondary sexual characteristics, and beginning to gain weight. As in the study of Mukai (2010), comparing the presence or absence of menarche may clarify the influence of secondary sexual characteristics. Moreover, it has been shown that junior high school students are more influenced by the media on their ideal body than are elementary school students (Mukai, Masuda, & Yamamiya, 2018).…”