ABSTRACT
Researchers have made important attempts to understand the relationship between parents (mostly mother's) attitudes to eating and weight, and the impact this has on the development of problematic eating attitudes and behaviours in the younger generation. The children of mothers with eating disorders had higher scores on the eating disorders examination, indicating higher levels of eating concern. Secretive eating by children occurred most often in the children of mothers who had bulimic symptoms, while over-eating was more likely in children whose mothers reported eating restraint and drive for thinness. The young people completed measures of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Eating disordered behaviours and attitudes were found to be related to high BMI and to encouragement of weight loss by peers and by both parents, but not to other aspects of family relationships. The overall effect of parents' behaviours and comments was substantial.
