Parenting style and the risk for eating disorders among teenage girls

AuthorSemiramida Manaj
PositionUniversity of Tirana
Pages61-69
Vol. 3 No. 3
November 2017
ISSN 2410-3918
Acces online at www.iipccl.org
61
Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences
IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria
Parenting style and the risk for eating disorders among teenage girls
PhD (C.) Semiramida Manaj
University of Tirana
Abstract
The aim of this study was to explore the role of parenting styles and the risk to develop an eating
disordered behavior among teenage girls. This study was designed to test the hypotheses
that parenting style are correlated with the risk to have an eating disordered behavior among
female teenages. It was predicted that the teenage girls at risk for developing an eating disorder
would report experiencing their parents style as high in control and low in warmth or low
in control and high in warmth. Speci cally, the permissive and the authoritarian parenting
style will be positively correlated with the risk to develop an eating disordered behavior. The
sample of this research was composed by 100 teenage girls 15-18 years old. The selection of
the participant was totally random and they were selected on the schools they frequented.
There were found signi cant correlations between daughters approach to eating and mothers
parenting style. These results support the impact of mothers parenting style on the risk to have
an eating disorder, but more research needs to be conducted in examining the relationship
between parenting style and eating disordered behavior.
Keywords: Adolescence, eating disorders, parenting style, authoritarism, permissive.
Introduction
There has been an increasing number of eating disorders cases and ve million
Americans have an eating disorder (Becker, Keel, Anderson-Fye, & Thomas, 2004).
Subsequently, a growing number of theories and treatments have been developed
and researched to address and explain this phenomenon. Yet, there is much debate
as to whether there is a singular origin or precipitating factor that contributes to
the development of eating disorders. In the literature, there have been numerous
theories proposed as to the root causes of eating disordered behavior, ranging
from psychoanalytic explanations (e.g., Blitzer, Rollins, & Blackwell, 1961) to
developmental, cognitive, and social in uences (e.g., Vitousek & Manke, 1994). From
a treatment perspective, one of the most successful therapeutic interventions for
anorexia and bulimia is family therapy (e.g., Lock & le Grange, 2005; Lock, le Grange,
Forsberg,& Hewell, 2006) highlighting an important role of the family in recovery as
well as etiology.
The purpose of this study is to explore the role of parenting styles of mothers and
the risk to develop an eating disorder omogn teenage girls. Speci cally, the study
is designed to test the hypotheses that permissive and authoritarian parenting
styles of mothers is correlated with an increased risk of they doughters to develop
an eating disordered behavior. Eating a itudes and behavior and parenting style
were measured with a self-reported proclivity for eating disordered behavior among
teenage girls. It is predicted that those at risk for developing an eating disorder will

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