Parental Confirmation, Body Dissatisfaction, and Disordered Eating Behaviors Among Female College Students

• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Date: 01 December 2019
• Author: Emiko Taniguchi
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12389

E T University of Hawaii at Manoa

Parental Conrmation, Body Dissatisfaction,

and Disordered Eating Behaviors Among Female

College Students

Objective: To examine whether parental com-

munication is associated with body dissatisfac-

tion 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 dis-

satisfaction 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 under-

graduate women who completed an online

survey that included perceptions of mothers’

and fathers’ acceptance (i.e., warmth and care)

and challenge (i.e., pushing childrenso that they

can achieve greater success).

Results: Parental conrmation was associated

with greater psychological well-being, which, in

turn, was negatively related to body dissatisfac-

tion and disordered eating behaviors. The asso-

ciations of acceptance and challenge with body

dissatisfaction differed by parental sex.

Conclusion: The ndings suggest that

body-satised daughters who are less likely

Department of Communicology, Universityof Hawaii, 2560

Campus Road, Honolulu, HI 96822 (emikotan@hawaii.edu).

Key Words: body dissatisfaction, conrmation, family com-

munication, female college students, disordered eating,

psychological well-being.

to engage in disordered eating have (a) a

combination of accepting and challenging com-

munication from mothers and (b) accepting (not

challenging) communication from fathers.

Implications: Family practitioners are encour-

aged to educate parents about the link between

their communication and daughters’ issues sur-

rounding body image and eating behaviors.

Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating

behaviors have been a health concern in the

United States, especially among female col-

lege students (Berg, Frazier, & Sherr, 2009;

Krahn, Kurth, Gomberg, & Drewnowski, 2005).

Disordered eating refers to a wide range of

troublesome eating behaviors, including food

restriction (e.g., dieting, fasting), purging, bing-

ing, and other inadequate methods to control

or lose weight, without meeting the criteria of

an eating disorder (Pereira & Alvarenga, 2007).

Although individuals with body dissatisfac-

tion or disordered eating might not meet the

full criteria for an eating disorder diagnosis,

the affected individuals nonetheless still often

suffer psychological and physical health risks

(Gillen, Lefkowitz, & Shearer, 2006; Puccio,

Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Ong, & Krug, 2016).

A complex web of factors is related to

body dissatisfaction and disordered eating

behaviors (Thompson, Heinberg, Altable, &

Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). For example, exposure to

sociocultural messages emphasizing the impor-

tance of thinness, thinness-ideal internalization,

624 Family Relations 68 (December 2019): 624–637

DOI:10.1111/fare.12389