The relationship between maternal body dissatisfaction and feeding behaviour with child body dissatisfaction and eating behaviour

The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between maternal body dissatisfaciton and feeding behaviour with child body dissatisfaction and eating behaviour. A total of 205 mothers were included in the study who have children between the ages 5 and 9 and live in Turkey. Informed Consent Form, A Socio-Demographic Form, Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire, Child Feeding Questionnaire, Child Body Figure Rating Scale, Photographic Figure Rating Scale for Women and Turkish version of Body Image Satisfaction Scale were applied to the participants. The hypothesis of the study were analyzed with IBM SPSS for Statistics 26.0. The descriptive analysis of the research, Chi-Square Test, Independent Sample T-Test and One Way ANOVA were applied while Pearson Correlation Test, Independent Sample T-Test, One Way ANOVA, Simple Linear Regression and Multiple Linear Regression were used to examine the relationship between the variables. As a result of the analyses, there were no significant relationship between mother and child body dissatisfaction. The child feeding and eating behaviors were differed according to the maternal perception of child body. The children who were perceived as overweight by their mothers, had higher scores with food responsiveness, emotional overeating, enjoyment of food, fussiness, perceived child weight and concern about child weight than other group. The children who were perceived as underweight by their mothers, had higher scores with satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating and pressure to eat than other group. As a result of simple linear regression analyses, concern about child weight positively predicted restriction. As a result of the multiple linear regression analyses, dissatisfaction towards child body, satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating predicted to pressure to eat positively. Finally, the predictive effect of child feeding behaviour subscales on child eating behaviour was obtained. The effects of body dissatisfaction and feeding behaviours on the eating disorders are well established. The examination of the relationship between body dissatisfaction, child feeding and eating behavior with childhood age group will contribute to the establishment of preventive studies by determining the precursors of obesity and eating disorders in the future. Keywords: Maternal Body Dissatisfaction, Child Body Dissatisfaction, Perception Child Body, Child Feeding Behaviour, Child Eating Behaviour