Eating Disorders: Diet Discussions With Overweight Daughters Can Increase Risk

Should mothers of overweight daughters discuss the issue of dieting?

New findings published in the journal Body Image examine how such conversations should take place so as not to increase the risk of eating disorders.

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame found that it was critical if a mother spoke with an overweight daughter regarding weight loss that she also talk about her own weight concerns.

"The daughters who were being encouraged to lose weight but whose moms were not also discussing their own weight concerns were more at risk for development of disordered eating, based on the higher scores on measures of dieting behavior and drive for thinness they reported in eighth grade," said study author Erin Hillard, a developmental psychology doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame, in a news release.

Hillard acknowledged that the study findings as a whole suggested more about what mothers should not be talking about than what they should. "After all," she said, "the best outcomes were found for daughters whose mothers were not engaging in either type of conversation. They do shed light on the complexity of the issue of talking to children about their weight in ways that don't lead to poor health outcomes in the long run."

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