Mothers, daughters, and disordered eating.

Abstract

We examined features of 77 mothers' attitudes and behavior that relate to disordered eating among their adolescent daughters. Mothers whose daughters reported a level of disordered eating comparable with clinical samples of bulimic patients were compared with mothers whose daughters reported a low level of eating disturbances. As hypothesized, mothers of daughters with disordered eating were more dissatisfied with the general functioning of the family system. Also, mothers whose daughters were eating disordered were themselves more eating disordered and differed in their dieting history compared with mothers of the girls who were not eating disordered. Furthermore, mothers of girls with disordered eating thought their daughters should lose more weight than mothers of girls who were not eating disordered. They also thought that their daughters were less attractive than the girls judged themselves.

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2. Development of eating behaviors among children and adolescents.
   Birch, Leann L., Fisher, Jennifer O. · 1998 · Pediatrics
3. Causes of eating disorders
   Polivy, Janet, Herman, C. Peter · 2002 · Annual Review of Psychology
4. A Review of Family and Social Determinants of Children’s Eating Patterns and Diet Quality
   Patrick, Heather, Nicklas, Theresa A. · 2005 · Journal of the American College of Nutrition
5. Factors Influencing Food Choices of Adolescents
   NEUMARK-SZTAINER, DIANNE, STORY, MARY, PERRY, CHERYL, CASEY, MARY ANNE · 1999 · Journal of the American Dietetic Association

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