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“Don’t eat so much:” how parental comments about a girl’s weight influence her as an adult (811.20)
Author(s) -
Latimer Lara,
Pope Lizzy,
Wansink Brian
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.811.20
Subject(s) - girl , daughter , psychology , developmental psychology , demography , body weight , clinical psychology , medicine , endocrinology , biology , sociology , evolutionary biology
Objective: How do the comments that a parent makes about a girl’s weight or eating behavior influence them long after they have left home? Methods: 501 women aged 20‐35 completed a survey assessing what comments they recalled their parents making about their eating habits and their weight as a young girl. These responses were correlated with their current BMI, eating habits, and satisfaction with their weight. Results: Regression analyses indicated that women’s BMIs were positively associated with parental comments about the women’s weight ( p <0.001) and how much they ate ( p <0.01). Moreover, young women’s weight satisfaction was negatively impacted by parental comments about the women’s weight ( p <0.01). Importantly, all of these findings were significant even after accounting for their parents’ concern about their own weight. Conclusions: A parent’s comment about their daughter’s weight or eating habits may have a lingering influence long after it is spoken. A parent’s negative comments about eating habits are related to their daughter having a higher BMI and more dissatisfaction with her weight as an adult.