Social and Behavioral Sciences

Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 ( 2014 ) 314 – 318

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.379

ScienceDirect

WCPCG 2014

Family Influence on Disordered Eating Behaviour Kadriu Fortesaa*, Kerqeli Ajeteb

a University AAB, Prishtinë, 10000, Kosovo

b NGO Follow, Ulpiane, Prishtinë 10000, Kosovo

Abstract

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. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center.

Keywords:disordered eating, family eating attitudes, Kosovo, college female student population, weight teasing

1. Introduction

Early etiological investigations suggested that the family (Kluck, 2008), particularly the perceived pressure from parents (Rodgers, Paxton, &Chabrol, 2009), media and peers as important sociocultural sources of influence on eating disorders (Marcos, Sebastia’n, Aubalat, Ausina & Treasure, 2013). Even though family factors received moderate attention in academia (Garner & Newman, 2001); the yielded results on influence of the family so far have been inconsistent (Kluck, 2008). Moreover, a large body of research has found that disordered eating come into view either in highly developed economies or in countries which are undergoing fast market transformation and their linked impact on the status of women (Nasser et al., 2001), predominantly in countries which have been

*FortesaKadriu. Tel. + 386-493-588-58 E-mail address: kfortesa@gmail.com

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exposed to Western values (Marcos et al., 2013). It has been postulated that social reinforcement, such as criticism regarding weight, encouragement to diet and family modelling of disordered eating behaviours promotes and perpetuates the thin ideal body image, resulting in eating pathology (Stice, 2001). Although a number of studies have found no influence of family in eating pathology (Garcia de Amusquibar & De Simone, 2003), other studies have pointed out that parents who are more critical of physical appearance and tease their daughters appearance (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2010) for female university students (Baker, Whisman, & Brownell, 2000) and encourage dieting are associated with increased disordered eating (Kluck, 2008). In fact, not only negative comments about appearance, but also overtly positive feedback may lead to negative consequences (Calogero, Herbozo & Thompson, 2009). However no particular parental comment came out as a superior predictor of eating pathology (Kluck, 2010). Furthermore, encouragement to diet have been found to be predictive of unhealthy weight control behaviours and weight gain (Neumark-Sztainer , Wall , Story & Van Den Berg, 2008). Additionally, females developed unhealthy eating behaviours in comparison to their peers when their mothers where appearance focused (Hill, & Franklin, 1998), but was less consistently associated with their fathers (Vincent & McCabe, 2000). A contributing factor to disordered eating is also the tendency of certain families to admire thinness in others (Davis, Shuster, Blackmore, & Fox, 2004), and appraisal of potential positive regard from thinness (Jones, 2001). Nonetheless, the differences regarding findings for family influence in eating pathology can be as a consequence of the methodology used in different studies (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2010). Hence, the following study investigates the familial weight-related environment, and relation with university female students’ eating disordered behavior, including the examination of both maternal and paternal influence. In addition the following study contributes to literature by shedding light on outcomes in a different culture, with an underrepresented population of diverse upbringing, since up to date there is not much research on the subject of disordered eating in Kosovo (Kadriu, Kelpi & Kalyva, 2013), a country which is going through cultural transition.Therefore this study has been conducted to examine the relation between parental modelling of eating behaviour and attitudes toward weight and parent weight related teasing and criticism and disordered eating behaviour.Accordingly, the following is the hypothesis: Participants who scored higher in family influence scale and on items about items about their parents’ comments about their weight/size, would report increased eating disordered behaviours. 2. Methodology

2.1 Participants

The sample of this study consisted of undergraduate female students from three universities in Kosovo. Three

hundred and ninety-three (393) students took part in the screening procedure. The age range was 18-25 years old (M=20.84 years; SD=1.52). Moreover, the sample consisted of participants coming from different places of Kosovo, including the main cities (Prishtina, Gjilan, Peja, Prizren, Gjakova, Mitrovica and Ferizaj). Nonetheless, the sample was convenient.

2.2. Measures

The Eating Attitude Test-26 (EAT–26) (Garner, Olmsted, Bohr & Garfinkel, 1982) has been utilized in this study

to asses eating disordered behaviours. The EAT-26 is a 6 point Likert scale with 26 items. The internal consistencies for multi-ethnic sample is α=.86 (Welch, Miller, Ghaderi &Vaillancourt, 2009). Whereas, the test- retest reliability is r=.91 (Phan&Tylka, 2006). The Cronbach’s alpha in this study is calculated .83.The Family Influence Scale (Young, Clopton, &Bleckly, 2004) is a 5 point Likert scale with 12-item assessing family attitudes toward appearance or family focus on appearance and attractiveness. The scale has been adapted from Perceived Sociocultural Pressure Scale (PSPS) developed bytStice, Nemeroff, and Shaw (1996). The internal consistency value is .89 (Young et al., 2004). In the present study Cronbach alpha coefficient is .84A set of six items specifically related to negative parental comments developed by Kluck, (2006, 2008) were used in the present study. Participants reported the frequency of criticism, teasing and encouragement for weight control by each parent using a 5 point Likert scale. Cronbach’s alpha is .82.Kluck et al., 2009). In this study the Cronbach’s alpha is .78.

2.3 Procedure

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Participants were approached in universities by one of the researchers and were briefed about the study. Only

participants who agreed to partake in the research were given to fill out the package with questionnaires and informed consent. Of the 430 participants, 393 were included in the final results, since some were incomplete and some were above the age of 25.

3. Results

The mean EAT-26 score was M = 65.36, SD = 14.28. The mean BMI score was M=20.25, SD=2.19. Eating

Disordered Behaviours scores were regressed on family modelling, mother pressure and father pressure. These three predictors accounted for 28.9% of the variance in eating disturbance. Family modelling (β = .35, p < .000), father pressure (β = .41, p = .001) demonstrated significant effects on Eating Disordered Behaviours scores. There was also a statistically significant association between mother pressure and Eating Disordered Behaviours scores (r(314) = .35, p = .000). Intercorrelations between the variables are presented in Table 1.

Table 1 Means, Standard Deviations and Intercorrelations Among the Study Variables

Variables M SD 1 2 3 4 5 1.Family modelling a

25.67

7.28

2. Father pressure 4.36 2.04 .373** 1.00

3.Mother pressure 5.15 2.33 .495** .614** 1.00

4.Eating Disorders Behaviours

65.34 14.32 . 476** .337** .358** .358** 1.00

5. BMI 20.28 2.14 .13 * .21** .20** .208** 1

a Higher scores indicate less body satisfaction**p < .000 * p < .01

Table 2 Parental comments predicting disordered eating behaviour. Types of parental comment R

Criticism about weight/size .063**

Teasing about weight/size .065**

Encouragement to control weight/size .198** ** p< .000

4. Discussion

This study explored the prospective association of family modelling and father and mother weight talk for weight status and eating disordered behaviours in Kosovo undergraduate female students. Findings indicate that family modelling and fathers’ weight talk predicted subsequent increases of eating disordered behaviours, partially supporting the claimed hypothesis. These results are in line with previous research, which predicted that female university students (Baker, Whisman & Brownell, 2000) whose parents are critical of physical appearance and tease them for appearance (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2010), report more disordered eating (Kluck, 2008).Furthermore, as shown in earlier research (Kluck, 2010) findings of this study also reveal that parental comments predicted disordered eating, even though parental encouragement for weight control explained more variance in the prediction model. These results may infer that even comments are given with positive intentions; they can still have a negative impact on daughters, consistent with previous findings (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2008). In contrast with similar

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research reports(Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2010), the study found evidence that paternal weight talk was more associated with increased girls’ disordered eating than maternal variables in the current study. Although additional research is needed to fully understand the role fathers play into eating behaviours of their daughters, the current finding could presumably be explained by the division of power based on gender role, specifically in collectivist cultures, where the role of father is more dominant. Moreover, there was no support for the assertion that mother weight talk predicts eating disordered behaviour, which does not converge with previous findings (Hill & Franklin, 1998). Lastly, this study highlights that appearance focused family culture was associated to eating pathology. The current result dovetails with many previous researches that linked weight-centric family environment with eating disordered behaviours (Davis et al., 2004; Kluck, 2010).There are a number of limitations in the current study that need to be addressed. Consequently, findings of this study cannot be generalized. Even though alpha coefficients for the used scale where acceptable (<.7) (George & Mallery, 2003), the scales have not been standardized yet in Albanian language. Additionally, the sample was convenient. Moreover, the findings of this study could be confounded since participants were not assessed for bulimic symptoms, thus the results could be merely suggestive. Supplementary studies could further shed lights into the influence of family dynamic factors since this study explained only 28.9% of the variance in the model and did not tackle the dynamic part. Finally, this study contributes to the existing knowledge by exploring family influence on eating pathology on a different cultural context. Moreover, results reflect the need to work with families of young women presenting with eating pathology, in particular it is novel the engagement of fathers in prevention and treatment plans.

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