Introduction

The amount of teenagers with eating disorders has significantly increased in recent years. In fact, teen eating disorders rates have more than doubled since the beginning of the pandemic. While there are many factors that contribute to these disorders, family factors should be considered.  This article explores how parent dieting may be related to their teen’s disordered eating habits. This study collected data from 2000-2023 from several different databases. 

Methods

• Three different databases were used to collect information from 2000-2023 and find studies
  • PubMeD/MEDLINE®, Scopus, and Google Scholar 
• To be reviewed, collected article needed to meet certain criteria such as age of participants

Results

The search collected 339 different articles to use in the study. However, only 6 were used following a flowchart that cut the rest of the articles out based on further screening. In two of the included studies, only parents answered the survey questions. In one of the studies, only the adolescents answered questions. The other three studies included answered questions from both parents and their teens. As for the results, five out of the six studies found some type of correlation between parent dieting and teen eating disorders. In fact, there was an even stronger correlation between mother dieting habits and their teen’s disordered eating.  It can be concluded that parent dieting does have an effect on their children’s eating habits. 

Discussion

While there seems to be a correlation between teen eating disorders and their parent’s dieting, family factors associated with adolescent eating disorders still need to be studied further. More questions to consider based on this article include:

• What eating disorders are teens most commonly diagnosed with?
• What other factors cause eating disorders in adolescents?
• Do different types of parent diets affect adolescent disordered eating differently?

Source:

Kontele, Ioanna, et al. “Parental Dieting and Correlation with Disordered Eating Behaviours in Adolescents: A Narrative Review.” Adolescents, vol. 3, no. 3, 2023, pp. 538-549. MDPI, https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7051/3/3/38. Accessed 3 12 2023.