A Mother’s Influence on Her Daughter’s Body Image

A Mother’s Influence on Her Daughter’s Body Image

For many years, I have been intrigued by thinking about the many factors involved in raising girls to be leaders, and particularly those within the home (see On Becoming a Woman Leader and Developing Leadership). Two of these factors—that continue to increase in their influence on girls and young women—are confidence and body image, and of course they are related. I recently read a scholarly article by Charlotte M. Handford, Ronald M. Rapee, and Jasmine Fardouly titled “The influence of maternal modeling on body image concerns and eating disturbances in preadolescent girls.” I will share a quick summary and a few of my thoughts.

Background

Although body image concerns run rampant during the teen years, many researchers have found that those concerns are influenced much earlier in girls’ upbringings. In fact, some studies have found body dissatisfaction can be found in children at the age of five, and these concerns continue to growth through young adulthood! Doesn’t that suck? Of course, the influence of parents is the strongest relationship that girls have during preteen years, so their mothers influence is front and center.

Handford et al.’s study focused on the “causal influence of maternal modeling on the body esteem, body satisfaction, eating attitudes, and eating behaviors of young girls.” Researchers controlled for a ton of elements as they took 50 girls (ages 8-12 years old) and their mothers through an experimental study and measured the daughters’ levels of body esteem, body satisfaction, eating attitudes, and actual eating habits, while also looking at the daughters’ anxiety and depression, mothers’ concerns regarding daughter’s weight and diet, and mothers’ concerns about her own weight and diet.

According to the authors, “While viewing thin-ideal magazine advertisements with their daughter, mothers were instructed to make either negative comments about their own weight, shape, and diet or to make no appearance or diet related comments.” Of course, there were more steps to the procedures, including both experimental and control groups, so I recommend reading the full research methods in the article for more details. One important element, however, was that there was a bowl of sweets placed beside each girl while she was filling out the questionnaire after their mothers left the room.

Results and Thoughts

What did these scholars find? Past research already hinted that mothers influence the development of body image in their daughters by modeling beliefs around negative body image and unhealthy eating behaviors. This study confirmed this maternal influence to be powerful. Handford et al. reported that “Girls whose mothers had made self-critical comments about their own appearance and diet reported lower body esteem, lower body satisfaction, more problematic eating attitudes, and ate significantly fewer sweets than girls whose mothers had not made self-critical comments.” 

So, it appears that if mothers have a preoccupation with their own weight and shape in the form of being self-critical, that daughters may also learn to “place great value on the importance of being thin” and will regularly criticize themselves. Body image can impact confidence, and confidence is needed to even aspire to leadership positions. And, working with girls on body image influences women’s leadership in direct and indirect ways. We need to help mothers truly understand the powerful positive and negative influence they are on their daughters in so many ways. I believe that reducing a girls preoccupation with her own body can help more girls aspire to and become leaders.

 

Dr. Susan R. Madsen is a global thought leader, author, speaker, and scholar on the topic of women and leadership. She is also the Orin R. Woodbury Professor of Leadership and Ethics in the Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University and the Founder of the Utah Women & Leadership Project. Learn more about her Utah work at http://www.utwomen.org and her global efforts at http://madsengloballeadership.com/.

Kimberly Williamson

Operations Manager, Wee Care Center at Utah Valley University

4y

This is why it is so important for women to get an education. My daughters were almost raised when I became a non-traditional student. There were so many things I wished I knew and understood while raising them. https://www.uvu.edu/uwlp/

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This is a serious problem in the United States for women and teen girls ... We must help educate teenagers of the consequences. #weight #education #rolemodel #familyfirst

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Julia Cha

Helping You Dominate Your Industry | Subconscious Reprogramming | Entrepreneurship, Leadership | Executive Presence | Personal Branding | Persuasive Copywriting | Authorship

4y

Something we work on daily. There is a lot of pressure on girls. My daughter is only 7, and she started talking about body stuff in Kindergarten. It's bewildering when it first happens. We emphasize health over anything else.

Murli Dhar Menon

GM Facilities & Operations Head

4y

Great!

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Shella Leahy

Mammography Technologist at CENTRELAKE IMAGING AND ONCOLOGY

4y

Toes are great

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