EATING ATTITUDES AND WEIGHT-LOSS ATTEMPTS IN FEMALE ADOLESCENTS AND THEIR MOTHERS

This study examined the relationship between mothers' eating attitudes and weight-loss attempts and their adolescent daughters' body dissati sfaction and weight-loss attempts. Two modes of transmission of mother 's values to the daughter (modeling and encouragement) and two forms o f weight-loss behavior (moderate and extreme) were examined. Female 10 th and 11th graders and their mothers completed eating attitudes and b ehaviors questionnaires. Daughter's moderate weight-loss attempts (e.g ., dietary restraint and exercising) and its associated body dissatisf action were significantly associated with mother's encouraging her dau ghter to lose weight. In contrast, daughter's more extreme weight-loss behaviors (e.g., fasting, crash dieting, and skipping meals) were pre dicted by mother's reports of her own body dissatisfaction and mother' s use of extreme weight-loss behaviors herself: These effects were not simply an artefact of daughter's body weight. Implications for theory and prevention were noted.