Parental Overvaluation of Child Weight/Shape Is Associated With Disordered Eating in Children Beyond Associations With Parental Internalized Weight Bias.

Abstract

Background: Parental overvaluation (ie, parental identity based on their child's weight) and parental weight bias internalization (ie, parents' internalization of societal bias toward people living in larger bodies) are both associated with their children's disordered eating. Less is known about the extent to which these constructs overlap and how their combination may relate to pediatric disordered eating.

Objective: This study examined the relationship between parental overvaluation, parental internalized weight bias, and children's disordered eating to test whether parental overvaluation was associated with disordered eating in children beyond the effects of parental internalized weight bias.

Design: Cross-sectional data were collected from parents in the United States recruited online through Mechanical Turk from March 2021 through January 2022.

Participants/setting: Participants included 196 parents (mean age = 38.2 years). Participants were excluded if they were younger than 21 years, lived with their child less than one-half the time, or failed to meet attention and validity checks embedded throughout assessments.

Main outcome measures: Disordered eating in children behaviors (eg, overeating, binge eating, purging, and secretive eating) were evaluated.

Statistical analyses performed: Correlations compared parental overvaluation and internalized weight bias. Hierarchical logistical regressions tested the association of internalized weight bias with disordered eating in children behaviors and then whether parental overvaluation significantly contributed to the variance in disordered eating in children eating behaviors beyond the effect of internalized weight bias.

Results: Across all disordered eating in children behaviors, parental internalized weight bias was significant in the first step of the logistic regression when it was the sole variable (all, P < .005). When both variables were included in models, parental overvaluation, but not weight bias, was significantly associated with all disordered eating in children behaviors (all, P < .001).

Conclusions: The extent to which a parent evaluates their worth as a parent based on their child's weight/shape is more strongly associated with disordered eating behaviors in children than with internalized weight bias. More research is needed to determine whether parent-focused treatment for pediatric eating disorders could benefit from strategies aimed at shifting the valued aspects of parental identity away from child weight/shape.