Mothers should avoid discussing weight issue with daughters

Study suggests talking things out not always ideal

NEW YORK: If you want your daughter to shed a few pounds, better abstain from saying it in so many words and even if you have to, do bring your own weight concerns into the discussion, suggests a study published by journal Body Image.

While discussing issues of diet and weight with their daughters, mothers would do better to raise their own weight-related problems, the study said.

Aiming to figure out how mothers should discuss weight issue with their daughters, the study focused on a group of sixth, seventh and eighth-grade schoolgirls and their mothers.



One of the researchers, Erin Hillard from University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said, “Generally, we found that for the daughters who were being encouraged to lose weight by their mothers, outcomes were worse if their mothers were not also discussing their own weight concerns.”

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 with girls whose mothers were not engaging in either type of conversation.” She said the findings 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. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2015.

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