Maternal weight status and investment in weight and eating predict daughters' problems with energy balance

The influences of the family environment on children's development of problems with eating and weight status are well established. The aim of this research was to examine the ways in which mothers influence their daughters' development of problems with energy balance, specifically eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) and increases in body mass index (BMI). Data used in these studies were from a longitudinal study on the factors influencing the emergence of early dieting in young girls, and included approximately 183 mother-daughter dyads. In the first study (chapter 2), we examined maternal and child eating and weight-related characteristics in mothers who differed in how highly they were invested in the eating domain (high versus low investment). Results revealed that compared to mothers with a lower investment in the eating domain, mothers who were highly invested were preoccupied with their own weight and eating, and made attempts to control their daughters weight and eating by restricting daughters' intake of energy-dense foods, and encouraging daughters to lose weight. In the second study (chapter 3), we examined relations among both overweight and normal weight mothers' disinhibited eating style and restrictive feeding practices when daughters were age 5, and daughters' EAH at age 9. The results of this study provide evidence that similarities between normal weight mothers' and daughters' eating style exist, which may be a result of maternal modeling. In daughters of overweight mothers, EAH was primarily influenced by daughters' weight status and mothers' restrictive feeding practices when daughters were age 5. In the third study (chapter 4), we examined the moderating influence of maternal weight status on relations among maternal restrictive feeding practices when daughters were age 5, daughters' EAH at age 9, and daughters' increase in BMI from age 5 9. Results revealed that, in daughters of overweight mothers, EAH at age 9 was predicted by mothers' restrictive child-feeding practices when daughters were 5-year-old; daughters' higher EAH scores at age 9 were associated with greater increases in BMI from age 5 to age 9. Collectively, these studies provide evidence that mothers' investment in the eating domain, including failed attempts to control her own eating, influences early attempts to control daughters' eating, and far these girls with predispositions to gain weight, these restrictive feeding practices place children at risk for developing later problems with energy balance.