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Parental Confirmation, Body Dissatisfaction, and Disordered Eating Behaviors Among Female College Students
Author(s) -
Taniguchi Emiko
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
family relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1741-3729
pISSN - 0197-6664
DOI - 10.1111/fare.12389
Subject(s) - psychology , disordered eating , eating disorders , perception , developmental psychology , structural equation modeling , clinical psychology , social psychology , statistics , mathematics , neuroscience
Objective To examine whether parental communication is associated with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating among college‐age daughters and whether these associations are mediated by psychological well‐being. Background Appearance‐related parental comments such as weight criticism have been shown to contribute to daughters' body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Yet less is known about how the general quality of parental communication that is not directly related to appearance is associated with these problems. Method Structural equation modeling was used with a convenience sample of 306 undergraduate women who completed an online survey that included perceptions of mothers' and fathers' acceptance (i.e., warmth and care) and challenge (i.e., pushing children so that they can achieve greater success). Results Parental confirmation was associated with greater psychological well‐being, which, in turn, was negatively related to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors. The associations of acceptance and challenge with body dissatisfaction differed by parental sex. Conclusion The findings suggest that body‐satisfied daughters who are less likely to engage in disordered eating have (a) a combination of accepting and challenging communication from mothers and (b) accepting (not challenging) communication from fathers. Implications Family practitioners are encouraged to educate parents about the link between their communication and daughters' issues surrounding body image and eating behaviors.