The role of the mother-daughter relationship in explaining weight concern

The literature highlights two possible roles for the mother-daughter relationship in the development of weight concern in young girls. The first is simply as a forum for modeling the mother's own concerns and the second is as an interaction between two individuals, which is either protective or facilitative of weight concern. The present study aimed to assess both the modeling and the interactive hypotheses.

Thirty mothers and their daughters (aged 16-19) completed a questionnaire concerning their weight concern (restrained eating and body dissatisfaction) and their beliefs about aspects of their relationship (daughter's autonomy, mother's autonomy, projection, intimacy, mother's role).

The results found no support for the modeling hypothesis, with no significant correlations between the mothers' and daughters' aspects of weight concern. However, the results showed support for the interactive hypothesis. In particular, the daughters were more likely to show restrained eating if their mothers reported a low belief in their own autonomy and if both the mother and daughter rated projection as important in their relationship. Similarly, the daughters were more likely to show body dissatisfaction if their mothers reported a low belief in both their own and their daughter's autonomy and if they rated projection as important.

The results indicate that the role of the mother-daughter relationship may be more complex than simply as a forum for modeling and are discussed in terms of the impact of aspects of the relationship on subsequent psychopathology.