Family Influence on Disordered Eating Behaviour

Appearance-focused family culture (Kluck, 2010) and weight-related teasing and comments (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2010) have emerged as a contributing factor in disordered eating in daughters. This study has been conducted to examine the relation between parental modelling of eating behaviour and attitudes toward weight, parent weight related teasing and criticism and disordered eating behaviour. A survey of 393 Kosovo female undergraduate students was conducted. Participants completed the Eating Attitude Test-26, Family influence scale and a series of items about their parents’ comments about their weight/size. Regression analysis revealed that family modelling, mother and father pressure predicted significantly disordered eating behaviours, accounting for 28.9% of variance. Findings indicate that family attitudes towards appearance were the strongest predictor in problematic weight-related outcomes.