Exploring the Extent of Maternal Awareness on the Development of Eating Disorders Among Young Girls

Young girls are often pressured to conform to societal beauty standards within their developmental contexts, as a child’s environment often influences the values that they adopt. Specifically, maternal influence is a major risk factor for the development of eating disorders among daughters, as mother-daughter relationships either buffer or enhance the salience of societal ideals. Thus, this study aimed to explore the extent to which mothers understand the impacts of three key maternal risk factors: Maternal Modeling, Maternal Criticism, and Insecure Attachment. To evaluate maternal perspectives, a survey was distributed to the mothers at Lake Washington High School (LWHS). The survey collected participants’ (n=70) opinions on whether 3 scripted scenarios, each corresponding one of the risk factors, were harmful or not and why. It was apparent that participants were more likely to correctly understand risk factors directly linked to food and body image such as Maternal Modeling and Maternal Criticism but were less likely to comprehend risk factors indirectly related, such as Insecure Attachment. Participants were also presented with Likert scales that prompted them to recall their own mothers’ behaviors. It was found that when a mother is aware of a risk factor, she is less likely to practice it and more likely to teach her daughter that it is harmful. Implications of these findings include the implementation of programs to spread awareness about maternal risk factors such as Insecure Attachment, to teach mothers how to foster a healthy environment surrounding food and body image for their daughters.