Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies: Home

Abstract:
Body dissatisfaction is a copiously researched topic, where variables like mother daughter relationships and self-esteem have consistently been highlighted in connotation for many years. The current study aims to confirm and extend the findings individually in three age cohorts of adolescence. Keeping in mind the studied role of self-esteem played in the relationship between parental attachment and body dissatisfaction, the current study also aims to investigate if it has an arbitrary role in determining the potential relationship between mother daughter attachment and body dissatisfaction specifically. The study was conducted on adolescent girls ranging from 11- 20 years (N= 85), distributed over three age cohorts; early adolescence (11-13), mid adolescence (14-16) and late adolescence (17-20) They were all recruited via collaborating schools in the Netherlands. Participants filled in questionnaires concerning Self-esteem (Rosenberg), Mother-daughter relationship (ECR- RS) and Body dissatisfaction (Body Dissatisfaction Subscale from the Eating Disorder Inventory for Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia). The results suggested that between the two scales of the ECR questionnaire (Avoidance and Anxiety), only anxiety effected the body dissatisfaction of girls in early adolescence. No effect of mother daughter attachment on body dissatisfaction was seen on girls in their mid or late adolescence. Moreover, self-esteem showed to mediate the relationship between mother daughter attachment and body dissatisfaction of girls, only in their early adolescence. These findings have implications for physical and mental health outcomes related to body dissatisfaction such as social anxiety, eating disorders and depression in adolescence.

Keywords: Body Dissatisfaction, Adolescent Girls, Mother Daughter Relationship, Age, Self Esteem

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