According to a report in UK’s Daily Mail…
The majority of teenagers in a survey said they felt damaged by the effects of their mother’s dieting and views on food and regarded their mothers as the biggest influence on their own self-image.
The survey of girls aged 12 to 18 found that six per cent of them had an eating disorder – a proportion that rose to one in ten among those whose mothers diet.The poll revealed that more than half – 51 per cent – of teenage girls surveyed have dieted at some stage.
Again, this increased to 59 per cent among girls whose mothers diet, while almost eight out of 10 girls worry about their weight and one in five said they are criticised by family members for being ‘too big’.
Annabel Brog, editor of teen magazine Sugar, which carried out the poll, said girls were heavily influenced by their family’s views on diet and food, which she described as their ‘thin-heritance’. Nine per cent of teenage girls said they are ‘constantly’ on a diet – a figure that almost tripled among girls whose families comment on their weight.
In the poll of more than 500 teenagers, almost four out of 10 girls said their mother had the biggest influence on how they perceived themselves. Two-thirds said they had heard their mum complaining about her own weight and 56 per cent have mothers who are on a diet.
This is despite a massive 68 per cent describing their mother’s body size as perfectly normal.
Commenting on the results of the survey, psychologist Amanda Hills said: ‘Children learn how to behave by watching their parents. ‘Food becomes an issue when mum isn’t sitting down to dinner with everyone else or is off preparing a separate meal for herself.
‘And a dieting parent will label certain foods as ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’, which can lead to an unhealthy approach to food. The ‘drip-drip’ effect of constant self-criticism in front of easily-influenced teens teaches them to do likewise. If mum’s calling herself fat, it won’t be long before her daughter is too. I would say at least half of the people I see with an eating disorder admit that there are problems with eating in the family.’
I found the link to this story on my friend Vanessa Raphaelly’s blog, Hurricane Vanessa. She is the editor of South African Cosmo and she writes…..
“I have a friend, a psychologist, who works with eating disorders and who claims they are amongst the most difficult psychological conditions to treat.
“Why?” I remember asking.
“One reason,” he said, “You really need to treat the mothers, first. Then the family. THEN the child.”
“So?” I asked.
“The mothers don’t think they have a problem.”
There is such truth in this. I think there is a huge connection between a mother’s body image and that of her daughter. And it’s not just what girls hear from their mothers about their bodies but also what they OVERHEAR their mother’s saying about their own bodies.
It’s not enough to give our daughters positive verbal messages about her body, it’s also vital our girls see us walking the talk about ourselves. I have a friend whose mother always told her she was beautiful. But at the same time, she saw her looking in the mirror complaining about how fat she was.
How do you think your mother’s body image impacted on yours? If you have a daughter, are you conscious about the messages you send?
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I don't think there's a woman alive who wouldn't blame their mother for their relationship with dieting and food. My mother taught me to count calories when I was ten... but it was necessary as we were all obese. I'm normal weight now, thanks to my mother.
I had a eating disorder for years, never quite bad enough to be hospitalised but a battle that eclipsed my life for a long time. It still manifests occasionally and it is something I feel I am vulnerable to still to this day. My mother is slim and I am naturally slim too, she watches her weight, works out but she is healthy not obsessed and rarely mentions weight. My family never mentioned my weight much that I can remember however my parents have always been fairly critical of what I do and... well everything. I feel this criticism although not directed about weight had something to do with my eating disorder, I felt inadequate often and was never told I was fantastic/beautiful/intelligent so I doubted myself. Mothers please build you daughters up, I have extremely kind and loving parents and it would break their heart to know I felt this way, it was never intentional but their actions and words did affect my whole sense of self.