Desire to be thinner and weight control among children and their parents

Body weight, desire to be thinner, and weight control attempts were studied in fourth grade boys and girls and their parents. Parental modeling and communications to their children were of particular interest. Girls reported greater desire to be thinner than boys, but they did not report more dieting. For girls, but not boys, desire to be thinner was positively correlated with dieting; however, these correlations were not significant when the effects of body weight were controlled. Daughters' body weight, desire to be thinner, and dieting were positively correlated with their mothers' and fathers' reported encouragement of daughters to control weight. However, only the correlation between dieting and reported encouragement to control weight by fathers remained significant when body weight was controlled. Fewer correlations were significant for boys. Finally, there were no significant correlations between mothers' and fathers' desire to be thinner and weight control measures, and those of their sons and daughters.