Mother weight talk and teasing: how much do they matter for body dissatisfaction and unhealthy weight control behaviors in daughter?

Objectives. Weight is a sensitive issue, especially for women, mothers find it difficult to discuss weight related topics with their daughters. However, little is known about mother attitude as a factor that increased daughter risk for body dissatisfaction and unhealthy weight control behaviours. The aim of the study is to assess mothers attitudes towards their and their daughter body correlation with daughters body dissatisfaction and unhealthy weight control behaviour.
Materials and methods. A quantitative cross-sectional study in the population of
adolescent girls from Latvia high schools was made in September – November 2021. The study population included 676 adolescent girls in 10th–12th grade. Mothers attitudes towards their and their daughter body were assessed: “My mother talks negative about her weight’’. Mother weight-teasing: “Have you been teased/made fun by mother because of your weight?”. Daughters body dissatisfaction and unhealthy weight control behaviors: “How dissatisfied have you been with your weight/shape?”,“Have you been deliberately trying to limit the amount of food you eat to influence your weight/shape?”. Data was analyzed using SPSS.
Results. In the study participated 676 adolescent girls, mean age of 17.2(SD+/-1.4) years. 533(78.9%) girls reported negative mothers talk about their weight. 444(65.7%) girls reported that their mother diets to lose weight. 175(25.9%) girls reported weight-teasing by mother. Statistically significant, positive, weak correlations were found between negative mother talks about her own weight and weight-teasing by mother (r=0.208,p<0.001). Statistically significant, positive, weak correlations were found between negative mother talks about her own weight and daughters body dissatisfaction (r=0.176,p<0.001), unhealthy weight control behaviors (r=0.148,p<0.001). Statistically significant, positive, weak correlations were found between weight-teasing by mother and daughters body dissatisfaction (r=0.329,p<0.001), unhealthy weight control behaviors (r=0.203,p<0.001).
Conclusions. Mothers whoes talk negative about her weight more often weight-teases their daughters and these mothers daughters more often have body dissatisfaction and unhealthy weight control behaviours.