A qualitative examination of parental perceptions of eating behavior and body image issues of their adolescent children: Identifying ambivalences and contradictions

Abstract

This study explores how parents of adolescents perceive their children’s eating behaviours and body image influences. Data collected through semi-structured interviews with 14 parent pairs were thematically analysed. Three themes were identified that contained ambivalences and contradictions in parents’ perceptions: 1. Normalising weight loss while also questioning dieting, 2. Valorising but also criticising unrealistic beauty ideals, and 3. Pathologising the overweight seemingly only on a health basis, but also due to appearance. All themes were reflective of the influence that dominant social messages on body image have on parental perceptions, primarily sustaining problematic eating behaviours and beauty ideals. They are also illustrative of the challenges that parents face in navigating opposing societal messages about eating practices and body image, leading them to implicit and explicit ambivalences and contradictions. The implications of the findings are discussed, along with suggestions for the development of a socially sensitive and informed parent support program.

Introduction

Parents and children are immersed in a culture filled with messages about the body. They are being continuously socialised in an environment that has widely promoted thinness as a golden standard (especially for females) for decades until today (Wolf, 2002), normalising often harmful beliefs and practices of body management (Brown and Tiggemann, 2022; Grabe et al., 2008). They have also recently witnessed the ascendance of the fit and toned body ideal that has put increasing pressure on both men and women to produce such bodies through effortful dieting and exercise. Despite affirmative body-positive discourses that have appeared in the media sphere, fat stigma still exists in different forms (e.g., Riley et al., 2022). While it could be said that the media that promote such ideals do not target parents and children in particular, research suggests they do (i.e., Cook and Wilson, 2019; Herbozo et al., 2004). This creates a complex social environment, often fraught with contradictory messages that families need to navigate as they make choices regarding their bodies.

It is true, for example, that obesity epidemic messages have been widely disseminated in the media, making parents cautious and holding them responsible for the health risks of having obese children (e.g., Boero, 2007, 2009; Moffat, 2010; Gracia-Arnaiz, 2010). Parents are struggling to promote healthy eating and avoid obesity amidst the ubiquity of unhealthy food in the market (Driessen et al., 2024). At the same time, in their efforts to avoid obesity, parents seem to be cautious of not leading their children to body dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, or even Eating Disorders (EDs) (e.g. Gracia-Arnaiz, 2010; Lydecker et al., 2024). Additionally, as body positivity movements and discourses abound, people are called to embrace the diversity of body sizes in a culture that still, however, over-valorises thin and fit bodies under a health imperative disguise (Riley et al., 2022). This social environment poses impossible, contradicting demands to parents. How do they navigate these in their parenting?

Research confirms the influence of parents on children’s physical and psychological health outcomes (Adamo and Brett, 2014; Mahmood et al., 2021) by demonstrating associations between parental and children’s attitudes and practices. This influence may be indirect, through concerns and practices regarding their own bodies (Keery et al., 2006; Wertheim et al., 1999), or direct, through encouragement to diet or teasing. This literature is predominantly quantitative and focuses on the size and direction of parental influence on children’s body dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, and disordered eating patterns or risk for developing EDs (Davis et al., 2004; Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2010). There is, however, a very limited understanding of the content of ideas and subjective meanings on which parental beliefs and practices are based in relation to dieting and body image (e.g., Liechty et al., 2016; Thomas et al., 2014; Tort-Nasarre et al., 2023). As these ideas affect how parents of adolescents understand and communicate with their children regarding body practices and body image, we emphasise the need for a more in-depth qualitative understanding of these issues.

Literature review

Parental influence on children’s eating practices, exercise routines, and weight outcomes

Part of the literature on parental influence focuses on how parents’ food preferences, practices, and beliefs directly correlate with their children’s eating habits, exercise routines, and overall weight outcomes (Adamo and Brett, 2014; Lazarou et al., 2008; Pickard et al., 2024) both in the short and in the long term (Sumodhee and Payne, 2016). Other research examines aspects of parenting style and the way they impact health outcomes. For example, parenting style (e.g., mindful, controlling, emotional feeding), attachment style (e.g., secure/insecure), and family environment (e.g., conflict/cohesion) have been linked to children’s health outcomes (Balantekin et al., 2020; Faber and Dubé, 2015; Gouveia et al., 2019; Kalavana et al., 2011; Mahmood et al., 2021).

Parents also influence their children indirectly through their beliefs and practices around their own bodies. Parental dieting, for example, predicts daughters’ restrictive weight loss methods, like food abstention, fasting, and skipping meals (Wertheim et al., 1999), which increases the likelihood of children dieting and struggling to maintain a healthy body weight. Maternal dieting is particularly influential on girls (Duck et al., 2023), but boys are also affected (Keery et al., 2006).

Parental emphasis on appearance is also influential. Maternal perceptions and messages about beauty ideals are highly influential in shaping girls’ body image and health-related attitudes (Pope et al., 2014), and paternal messages significantly influence boys’ strategies for losing weight and gaining muscle (McCabe and Ricciardelli, 2005). Research also links family culture to disordered eating behaviours and EDs. Fathers who value physical attractiveness and slimness and encourage food restriction are more likely to have daughters who engage in harmful dieting behaviours (Dixon et al., 2003), and a family focus on appearance and body image dissatisfaction of the daughters can partially predict disordered eating (Kluck, 2010).

Parental encouragement to diet and weight talk effects

A direct form of parental influence is encouraging children to diet. Although some parents may justify it on the basis of health concerns (Lydecker et al., 2024) or as a way to prepare their children for external teasing (Berge et al., 2015), it can be harmful. Encouragement to diet is linked to a range of unhealthy or disordered weight loss behaviours in adolescent girls, such as smoking, vomiting, and using laxatives (Dixon et al., 1996; Kluck, 2010), and is a stronger predictor of daughters’ dietary restraint and bulimic symptoms than parents’ own dieting behaviours (Wertheim, 2002; Wertheim et al., 1999).

Research shows that girls whose mothers or both parents encouraged dieting were more likely to engage in extreme weight-control behaviours (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2010) and exhibited an increased drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction. Interestingly, research suggests that girls are exposed to weight loss encouragement independently of their actual weight (Davison and Deane, 2010) and even when they are underweight or within the normal weight range (Dixon et al., 1996; Fulkerson et al., 2002). Maternal encouragement to diet also correlates with unhealthy eating behaviours in sons, such as binge eating, fasting, skipping meals, and worrying about weight gain and dieting, even after accounting for Body Mass Index (BMI) (Fulkerson et al., 2002).

Diet encouragement may take the form of “weight/fat talk” that involves teasing and critical comments about body shape/size. Weight talk in the family context can be directed toward the child or appear in the form of parents’ self-talk regarding their own weight or obesity-fat talk regarding social others (Lydecker et al., 2018). Lydecker and colleagues (2018) showed that while parents’ self-fat talk was the most frequent in the family context, the child-fat talk was the most influential, especially on adolescent girls, being most associated with problematic eating behaviours (i.e., binge eating, overeating, secretive eating, and overweight/obesity).

Weight talk has harmful effects on children and is associated with restricted food intake and body dissatisfaction in daughters, independently of their BMI (Keel et al., 1997). It is linked to obesity, disordered eating behaviours, early dieting, depression, and low self-esteem (Berge et al., 2015, 2016). The negative effect of weight talk may be attenuated for daughters when daughters and mothers engage in joint fat talk (Chow and Tan, 2018).

Keery and colleagues (2005) demonstrated that paternal teasing might be a strong predictor of body dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalisation, restrictive eating, bulimic behaviours, low self-esteem, and depression for adolescents. Also, the same study highlighted that girls teased by at least one sibling exhibited higher levels of the aforementioned symptoms.

There is little research on the content of weight-based talk within the family environment. A qualitative study (Thomas et al., 2014) showed that parents often find it challenging to discuss weight-related issues due to their fear of promoting a harmful body image. At the same time, parents transmitted negatively framed messages to prevent weight gain, including teasing children about their weight, while they also valorised thinness as an indicator of health over other indicators (Thomas et al., 2014), findings that point to tensions and ambivalences in family communication.

Parental efforts to promote positive body image

Some researchers have focused on the ways that parents seek to counter these adverse consequences of weight-talk on children by emphasising body positivity and challenging harmful body image narratives (Maor and Cwikel, 2016). For example, some parents engage in positive reinforcement towards body image (Maor and Cwikel, 2016; Tort-Nasarre et al., 2023) and cultivate self-compassion and tolerance towards diverse body types (Pope et al., 2014). They also seek to filter and challenge social messages that their children encounter, to develop awareness of EDs (Maor and Cwikel, 2016), to promote their children’s well-being through healthy eating and exercising (Maor and Cwikel, 2016; Siegel et al., 2021; Tort-Nasarre et al., 2023) and to abstain from placing too much emphasis on appearance and body image (Siegel et al., 2021; Tort-Nasarre et al., 2023).

Finally, even when parents do not directly target body image issues, positive family relationships, quality time, and closeness with parents can be protective factors against body dissatisfaction and disordered eating (Byely et al., 2000), and trust in parents can mediate the negative effects of comparisons with social media images (De Coen et al., 2024). Providing social support and modelling healthy coping behaviours (Littleton and Ollendick, 2003) can be beneficial for children’s body image. Most of these strategies are confirmed as desirable by young adults themselves when discussing how they want their parents to engage in communication about their bodies (Staviss et al., 2024).

Limitations of existing research and the current study

Overall, existing research provides evidence of the direction and size of the effect of parental attitudes and behaviours (i.e., parenting styles, family culture, parental dieting and encouragement to dieting, weight talk) on children’s physical (i.e., weight, disordered eating) and psychological health outcomes (i.e., body image satisfaction, self-esteem, risk of EDs). There is less information about the content of beliefs that parents and children hold about related issues. Limited qualitative research in the area sheds light on the subjective meanings and understandings of the body image of both parents and children and the concerns around it (Liechty et al., 2016; McLaughlin et al., 2015; Pope et al., 2014) on the content of conversations around weight and body image within family environments (Berge et al., 2016; Siegel et al., 2021), on the social messages that parents and children perceive and may internalise and their implications for their beliefs and practices (Thomas et al., 2014) and finally on the subjective strategies used to enhance body image (Maor and Cwikel, 2016; Tort-Nasarre et al., 2023). Such research has also highlighted challenges that parents face in discussing these issues with their children (e.g., Thomas et al., 2014) or their implicit attitudes, such as fat bias or idealisation of the thin ideal (e.g., Siegel et al., 2021; Thomas et al., 2014).

We emphasise the need to extend a qualitative focus on the content of ideas and meanings of parents, as it is important to understand how they frame their communication with their children on such issues. Specifically, we argue that these less explored parental beliefs and often implicit or even ambivalent assumptions about these issues may affect how they manage dietary, exercise, and body image issues in the family environment and, by implication, how they may recognise (or fail to do so) ED symptoms or even inadvertently sustain problematic behaviours at home.

Within the context of Cyprus, limited research on the issue has focused on associations between parental and children’s dietary beliefs and behaviours and associations between family environment and children’s health outcomes (references concealed for review purposes). In this study, we thus focused on pairs of parents of adolescents in Cyprus to qualitatively explore how they perceived their children’s eating practices and the influence of beauty ideals on their children’s body image.

Methodology

We employed qualitative methodology to delve into parents’ perceptions and meanings around EDs, beauty standards, and nutritional practices within the family environment. Qualitative methodology is uniquely designed to explore people’s experiences, beliefs, and the meanings they attach to them (Willig, 2019). It offers a more comprehensive and detailed understanding of individual participants’ perspectives (Howitt, 2019). Thus, it is suited to identifying complex, contradictory, or implicit perceptions that may be invisible through self-reports.

The sample consisted of 28 individuals, forming 14 pairs of parents (mothers and fathers) of adolescents. All participants resided in urban areas of Cyprus and were recruited through snowballing, which began within the second author's circle of acquaintances and extended to those acquaintances’ broader family and social networks. Since most existing research included either mothers or fathers but not both, we intended to include both parents in a pair to see how they interact in discussing these issues. All participants were required to confirm they did not have a child diagnosed with an ED as part of their eligibility for the study. All participants were native speakers, although foreign-language users were not excluded. Adolescence was defined in accordance with the World Health Organisation definition (World Health Organisation, n.d) and included children between 10 and 19 years old. Parents participating in the study were required to have at least one child within this age range. The age range of the participants was 40-59 years, and 27 of the 28 participants had obtained at least a college or undergraduate degree, reflecting a high level of education. In terms of socioeconomic background, they were middle-class. Out of the 14 pairs of parents, 8 pairs had children of both genders, 4 had only male children, and 2 had only female children.

Semi-structured interviews

The interviews were conducted with each parent pair at the participants’ homes. They focused on the following two broad thematic units: 1. Recognition and understanding of EDs. Questions in this unit examined first parents’ recognition of EDs based on three vignettes used in previous research (see Supplemental Material: https://figshare.com/s/c2059c624977b086668f Appendix A), translated into native Greek language, regarding Anorexia Nervosa (Mond and Arrighi, 2011; Mond et al., 2006), Bulimia Nervosa (Anderson et al., 2016; Mond and Arrighi, 2011; Mond et al., 2004, 2008), and Binge ED (Anderson et al., 2016). Parents were given the vignettes and were asked a series of open questions regarding the character presented and his/her behaviours/feelings (gender/age of vignette character matched the gender/age of their child). Perceptions around EDs focused on parents’ understanding of the aetiology, risk factors, severity, prevention, and treatment of EDs. 2. Parents’ representations of the influence of beauty ideals on children’s body image, their eating management practices at home, and stigma and literacy around these issues.

Research ethics

Before the interviews, participants were fully informed about the study’s purpose and topic and their rights. They signed a consent form confirming their voluntary participation. The consent form assured them that any identifying details would be concealed, that the collected data would be analysed alongside other participants’ data through qualitative analysis, and that the research results could be published while maintaining their complete anonymity. Before its commencement, the study received ethics approval from the National Bioethics Committee.

Analytical procedure

The data collected from the interviews were transcribed into Word files and imported into the qualitative analysis software Atlas. ti (version 8) for coding purposes. Using inductive and deductive techniques (Orphanidou and Kadianaki, 2020), a coding scheme was developed collaboratively among the authors to categorise the data. A total of 45 codes were developed (available upon request) that referred broadly to issues of nutrition, beauty ideals, stigma, self-acceptance, and various aspects of EDs’ perceptions (e.g., causes, identity, prevention, treatment, target group, etc.).

The data were analysed following the principles of thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006, 2019). Each theme captures something significant about the data in relation to the research question, representing a patterned response or meaning within the data set (Braun and Clarke, 2006). We identified three themes, each capturing a distinct pattern of meaning contained in 11 different codes: 1. Normalising weight loss while also questioning dieting, 2. Valorising but also criticising unrealistic beauty ideals, and 3. Pathologising the overweight seemingly only on a health basis, but also due to appearance (see Supplemental Material: https://figshare.com/s/c2059c624977b086668f Appendix B). Each of these themes represents a distinct pattern of meaning (i.e. normalising dieting, valorising unrealistic beauty ideals and pathologising the overweight). Within each of these themes, however, a more fine-grained micro-level analysis of discourse, focusing on the latent meanings of parents’ discourse, revealed that these themes contained ambivalences and contradictions. We thus named each theme in ways that reflect these internal ambivalences and contradictions. The themes identified were independent of the gender of the participants’ children.

The analysis was based on the original native-language transcripts, and the extracts included in this thesis were translated into English for presentation purposes. Transcription conventions can be found in Supplemental Material (https://figshare.com/s/c2059c624977b086668f Appendix C).

Researcher reflexivity and positionality

Reflexivity was central to different stages of this study, given the interpretive nature of qualitative analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2019). Regarding the research question, the study was built on an assumption that parents might show limited understanding and awareness regarding body image and eating-related concerns of their adolescents. While this informed the initial research focus, the core analytic concept (contradictions and ambivalences in parental discourse) emerged inductively from the data, through an iterative process built on descriptive coding that stayed closely tied to participants’ discourse, allowing for a more complex understanding than was initially assumed.

As to data collection, interviews were conducted by the second author, who had prior acquaintances with some participants. This familiarity may have encouraged trust but may also have hindered elaboration, particularly on sensitive topics, due to concerns about judgment or privacy issues. At the same time, the identity of the interviewer, being in her early 20s, not a parent and a psychology student, introduced a distinct power asymmetry which may have influenced what participants felt able or willing to say (Gillespie and Cornish, 2010; Kadianaki, 2014). The fact that the interviewer was not a parent may have allowed for more open questioning and avoiding assumptions that a fellow parent might have shared. Also, some participants may have felt the need to justify their parenting views or adopt a more expert stance, while others may have explained things more explicitly than they would to a fellow parent. The fact of being a young student may have positioned the interviewer in a novice position, which has enabled elaboration from the participants’ side. To enable a good level of consistency in the responses, independently of these identity dynamics, the same interview guide was followed for all participants.

Reflexivity was also maintained during analysis. The first author, unfamiliar with participants, was engaged in coding and interpretation, which served as a form of investigator triangulation (Denzin, 2009), enhancing reflexivity by introducing an alternative lens. Both authors engaged in repeated discussions, which helped clarify points of divergence, challenge implicit assumptions and ensure the final themes remained grounded in the data.

Findings

Theme 1: Normalising but also questioning weight loss and dieting

Parents normalised weight loss efforts in three ways: First, they framed the desire for weight loss as natural and unquestionable. Second, they linked weight loss exclusively with positive emotions. Third, they justified extreme dieting behaviours or underestimated the symptoms of EDs. While doing so, however, they also questioned its necessity, albeit very rarely or engaged in justifying efforts for their practices, possibly realising they may be harmful.

Overall, parents regarded weight loss as beneficial and eagerly supported it, even in minor weight deviations. However, the need for weight loss was much less questioned. In the first extract, Sarah discusses her reactions to her child’s desire to lose weight:

“Sarah (Mother, F19,M23): If let’s say, the child was overweight, you know, gained some extra pounds, and they acknowledged it like, ‘I’ve gained weight, and I want to lose 2-3 kilos’, you should help them. Like, okay, do you want us to follow a diet? Let’s go to a nutritionist, let the nutritionist set up a diet plan, let’s go. And I can help you with cooking.”

Sarah seems eager to support her child’s desire to lose weight if the child acknowledges it, but she does not seem to question the need to lose 2-3 kilos in the first place. Similarly, in the following extract, the desire to lose weight is perceived as desirable and legitimate.

“R: How would you react if your child wanted to go on a diet?

Eleni (Mother, M19,F23,M25): Very positively (Laughter)

John (Father, M19,F23,M25): The proper diet

Eleni: The appropriate diet

John: I mean, if it’s necessary

Eleni: Not a diet, but healthy nutrition. You need to go to a professional and get a healthy diet plan, and I am willing to offer to cook healthy meals, but there’s nothing else I can do.”

The mother spontaneously reacts very positively to her child’s possible desire to diet. The father’s concern focuses on ensuring the diet is nutritionally balanced, and the mother agrees. Only then is the necessity of dieting introduced by the father, who, however, does not explain the conditions under which it would be necessary. The chance to question the necessity of the diet is somehow missed, as the mother ends by emphasising again the need to have a professionally designed healthy nutrition plan.

In some cases, like the one below, parents justified taking their children to a nutritionist despite them never being “chubby” or “overweight.”

“R: And if your child wanted to go on a diet, how would you react?

Maria (Mother, F14,M16): It depends. I mean, if we really saw that, like our son, we took him to a nutritionist because he was never chubby, but...

Theodoros(Father, F14,M16): But he also asked for it, right?

Maria: He asked for it himself /because he had a tendency basically/

Theodoros: /But he knew, and he stopped just where he needed to stop, yes/

Maria: But he was very consistent and still ate normally; I mean, he himself said that I eat more now than before when I wasn’t dieting, but okay, we followed up systematically; the nutritionist monitored him, and I repeat, he never was overweight

Theodoros: And he didn’t do it because someone told him you are fat or you are...

Maria: He himself felt that he had put on weight basically as he was growing up

Theodoros: He realised it himself, so to speak /and said that I need to do something/

Maria: /Now we are trying/ to convince him that he needs to start again after the summer because he overdid it (laughter).”

The father justifies this paradoxical, at-first-sight claim by emphasising the child’s desire to go to a nutritionist and the mother’s observation that the child had a “tendency” that is not specified but possibly refers to a tendency towards being overweight. In the rest of the extract, there is a visible effort to justify the visit to the nutritionist by emphasising it was the child’s desire (i.e., “didn’t do it because someone told him” “he himself felt that..” “he realised it himself”) and to present the effort as being within the proper limits of weight loss (i.e., “he was very consistent and…I wasn’t dieting” “he stopped just where he needed to stop”). These justifying efforts are probably indicative of the parents’ understanding that dieting, especially in the context of an interview around EDs, may be criticised. Despite this realisation and the efforts to attribute the desire to diet to the child himself (vs external/parental pressure), the extract concludes with the mother arguing about the need “to convince” the child to start dieting again after overeating lately.

This extract demonstrates the paradoxes and ambivalence that parents face, recognising on the one hand that dieting may be unnecessary or even harmful, while at the same time, they reinforce the desire and the practice of dieting for their child. The support and even reinforcement of dieting efforts can also be understood by the positive emotions and evaluations accompanying descriptions of weight loss of parents, such as the ones that Nicolas describes when reacting to the BED vignette:

“Nicolas (Father, F11,F14): I think it's normal. Since she feels overweight and is a bit overweight, at 14, it’s normal to want to lose weight, to want to be liked, etc., to feel better about herself.

In this extract, losing weight is linked with being more liked and feeling better about oneself. Similarly, another father reacts to the BN vignette by falsely considering that the character of the vignette is overweight, despite the vignette explicitly mentioning that “…her current weight is typical for someone her age. But Kelly feels fat”.

“Panayiotis (Father, M9,F12): At the age of 14, for your body to transition from overweight to normal, well, it creates in you a, let’s say, greediness, a narcissism maybe because you realise that your body is changing, and you become more, let’s say for your age, more desirable, more typical for your age anyway, at the age of 14. Now, the part about trying to control this bulimia at night, for example, either through vomiting or by neutralising the consequences of overeating in this way, means that we can always talk about a person who thinks that vomiting is the easy solution to cover the guilt, the guilt she feels because of overeating.

Panayiotis uses the term “greediness” to describe weight loss, which signifies a relentless pursuit of weight loss. This is assumed to create overwhelmingly positive emotions because of being desirable. Vomiting, as a solution to control bulimia, is perceived as acting out the guilt of overeating, an emotion that, again, the father assumes. The extract mirrors dominant societal beliefs regarding weight, portraying being overweight as a condition needing correction and reinforcing the ingrained notion that weight loss is inherently desirable, leading to positive feelings that are addictive.

Another way through which normalisation of weight loss efforts was evident in parents’ interviews was in underestimating or justifying pathological behaviours linked with EDs. In reading the vignettes, some parents identified with some of the behaviours described and related to the characters in ways that suggested that they thought these behaviours were within a normal range. Constantinos, for example, argued that he also ate ice cream at night due to the deprivation of a diet. He did, however, clarify that he did not induce vomiting after eating. Emma also related to the night-eating behaviour of the BN character and -laughingly- suggested that vomiting could be a good idea for her as well:

“Emma (Mother, F10): “I do that too, but… I also eat so much at night, but I don't vomit; that's the problem (laughter). Everything stays there, and I sleep fine (laughter).”

Other parents suggested that the developmental stage of adolescence may justify the vomiting behaviour described in the vignette:

“Pavlos (Father, M16): It’s not logical to make yourself vomit to lose weight.

Anastasia: In adolescence, it might not be logical, but it can be justified.”

Or described skipping meals due to overeating as a balanced approach for their 14-year-old:

“Olivia (Mother, F9,M14): He found balance in adolescence. He knows that if he gains weight or eats more, he won’t eat at night, for example. He’ll say, ‘I won’t eat at night,’ or he’ll choose something light to eat at night, you know, he found it...”

Overall, in this first theme, parents seemed to find weight loss desirable by linking it to positive emotions, supporting their children’s desire for weight loss, and normalising problematic behaviours regarding food restriction. There were some visible signs of either questioning the necessity of dieting or being aware that their practices may be questionable. This ambivalence and its implications will be further discussed in the last section of the manuscript.

Theme 2: Valorising but also criticising unrealistic beauty ideals

Parents implicitly and explicitly valorised the slim and fit body in two ways: by implicitly linking it to their idea of ultimate beauty or by explicitly arguing in favour of fit and slim ideals. Traces of scepticism were more evident within this theme than in the first theme. Nevertheless, parents didn’t question the ideals per se, but rather, their feasibility or prioritisation as values in life. In the following extracts, concepts such as beautiful, attractive, or perfect did not need any explanation and were used as synonymous with these body types:

“Nicole (Mother, F19,F24): They advertise shampoo, and there's a perfect body. They advertise clothes, and there's an ideal body. They advertise beer, and there's a perfect body.

“Theodoros (Father, F14,M16): You won't see a morning show presented by an unattractive girl who isn't particularly beautiful or overweight.”

“Sarah (Mother, F19,M23): And social media, when you open Instagram and Facebook, where they post their photos and pose with their slim and perfect bodies.

The valorisation of beauty and fitness standards was also evident when discussing famous figures:

“Constantinos (Father, F19,F24): Standards, when they are correct and done right, for example, aspiring to be like Ronaldo is good, physically, if only everyone could be like that.

The father’s extract implies that Ronaldo’s physique represents a widely desirable standard that would be ideal if it were attainable for everyone.

Some parents, as Christos below, presented scepticism regarding these ideals.

“Christos (Father, M9,M14): We’re not saying the ideals are wrong. I mean, let’s not flatten it. The ideal is wrong if it’s the underweight model; that ideal is wrong, even though it was projected until recently. Having a well-toned body is not wrong as a standard; it just doesn't mean everyone has to be that way. So, this is the message we want to send to the child: not everyone will be like that. Everyone has their body type, lifestyle, and character, and we won’t all become doctors or models.”

Christos presents the underweight model as the only problematic beauty ideal while arguing in favour of a well-toned body. He argues that these ideals, such as the fit body type, are not wrong per se, but they should not be considered imperative, and they also need to allow for body diversity. In the last two lines, however, the message sent to the child is that not everyone will be like that, not because they do not want to, but possibly because they cannot, due to the individual differences (in body type, lifestyle, character) mentioned. Thus, the role models of a doctor or a fashion model that he refers to, probably as being highly desirable, are not attainable by everyone.

Some parents discredited the value attached to this body ideal, but interestingly, not the ideal per se. For example, Emma argued:

“Emma (Mother, F10): I think recognising beauty is okay; it doesn’t mean you can’t say it’s a beautiful body. It’s not bad to accept a beautiful body; it’s just that it won’t be your whole effort to have just this body. I don’t think it’s bad to have a nice body, or I won’t tell my child, ‘It’s not good to have this body’, or ‘Don’t pay attention to this body.’ I might say, ‘This is a beautiful body, but the person is not judged by their body.’ For me, it’s always the whole package; value the mind, your personality; it’s all part of a package, so try to have balance in everything.”

The mother emphasises that she will not deter the child from recognising that someone has a beautiful body or that it is not good to have this body. She frames the issue of achieving a specific body type as not being of utmost importance and priority over other aspects of a person’s existence, arguing about the balance of everything. Andreas and Olivia also argue that having such a body is not the essence of life:

“Andreas (Father, F9,M14): Yes, and at the end of the day, that’s not the essence of life, so... what we said before, one must filter what they see, what they hear, what they read; they must have the perception and ask themselves, is it normal what I see? Is it easy for us all to become like this? What sacrifices does it require?

Olivia: Yes, and we can’t all become like this; we don’t all have the same body type.”

The father does not question the desire to resemble current beauty standards: one’s desire to conform to the given ideals is unquestionable, but achieving it is questionable on the basis of difficulty or feasibility (“Is it easy…what sacrifices does it require?”). The mother agrees that these body types may not be feasible due to body type differences.

Thus, it seems that while parents problematise adherence to beauty ideals, they do not problematise the ideal per se; instead, they are sceptical of whether this is feasible for everyone, whether it should be a high priority, or whether it is true, as shown. Thus, the ideal is perpetuated: the norm of the ideal body itself or the desire to resemble it is not challenged.

Theme 3: Pathologising the overweight on health but also appearance bases

Within this last theme, parents connected the condition of being overweight and the behaviour of eating excessively with a series of negative attributes that were pathologised and stigmatised. Interestingly, parents justified their views primarily in terms of health and practical necessities as opposed to an appearance concern, which they, however, implicitly sustained. This was also visible when parents expressed an interesting contradiction between self-love and acceptance when one is overweight.

Parents’ reactions to the behaviours of eating excessively described in the BED and BN vignettes were indicative. For example, the BED vignette character was seen by many as lacking control and discipline, resulting in a lack of boundaries. According to Pavlos (Father, M16), the character “couldn’t manage to control themselves and set limits and went too far” and “he doesn’t dare to react; he doesn’t dare to create, to resist the temptations he has with food.” The inability to exert control was viewed negatively, often interpreted as a sign of weakness or cowardice: Constantinos (Father, F19,F24) also reported: “If you have determination, you can say, ‘I’ll do it’ […] But I think this girl has no self-discipline to tell herself and control herself that she must stop eating between meals. Is it necessary that she eats all those snacks?” and Eleni (Mother, M19,F23,M25) described the character of the BED vignette as: “he doesn’t maintain balance, he doesn’t love himself, he lacks the necessary self-confidence and self-discipline, and this will eventually lead him downhill at some point.”

Overall, the characters involved in excessive eating are described as lacking self-love, self-will, and determination to resist temptations and set dietary goals; they are seen as unable to control themselves and find balance. These attributes are characteristic of the stigma surrounding overweight people. It is unsurprising, thus, that parents also linked being overweight to EDs more clearly compared to other body types.

Beyond links between overweight and EDs, parents generally linked excessive eating and being overweight with health and psychological problems. In the next quote, Maria describes in alarming ways the consequences of gaining extra weight in reaction to the BED vignette.

“Μaria (Mother, F14,M16): Okay, the situation can become very serious if it's not addressed. Imagine if this condition of overeating continues, and he keeps gaining weight, he will definitely experience bullying if he hasn't already, become completely isolated, have difficulty fitting in, which could lead to other consequences, such as ending up with bulimia or continuing the overeating. Still, this issue alone apart from the physical problems that might arise from overeating, an overweight individual can face many problems. Additionally, there will be a significant issue with socialisation.”

Being overweight is described as a “very serious” problem, unproblematically linked with health and physical issues, described as an uncontrollable situation during which the person keeps gaining weight incessantly or ends up with bulimia. An overweight condition is unquestionably linked with a series of psychological difficulties that relate to social isolation and adjustment.

Given these assumptions, parents described taking action over weight fluctuations, especially those of increasing weight, with a sense of urgency (i.e., Emily (Mother, F11,F14,M18): “I would take her immediately [to the nutritionist] both for being overweight and underweight” and Constantinos (Father, F19,F24): “You must immediately see if your child has a problem with this issue; you need to investigate it as early as possible, surely everyone.”

The focus on losing weight was often framed as a health or a practical issue. For example, Theodoros (Father, F14,M16) argued in favour of losing weight “to be more elegant but also for health reasons.” For Olivia, losing weight is framed as a practical issue to the child herself, a 9-year-old girl:

“Olivia (Mother, F9,M14): She gained some weight over the summer, and we went to put on her skirt for school that I bought in May, and it didn’t fit. Meanwhile, we noticed that she had gained weight, but I was trying to tell her in a good way, […] because I didn’t want to end up creating insecurities, you know, go to other extremes. So, I told her to pay a little attention to our nutrition, you know, not to go on a diet, but to pay more attention to what we eat at night and our portions. Meanwhile, her father was telling her, ‘You’re getting fat, be careful, be careful,’ but she didn’t understand. Then, after I told her in a better way that ‘we need to pay attention to our diet so that we can fit into our school clothes and so that our belly doesn’t show a bit bigger,’ she understood and started on her own, ‘Mom, is it okay if I eat this tonight?’ ‘Yes, go ahead,’ ‘I’ ‘ll eat one plate instead of two,’ I told her, ‘Yes,’ ‘I’ll eat fruit instead of that, I’ll eat salad,’ I told her, ‘Yes,’ and within a week she lost 1 kg, for example. So yes, we always try to help with conversation, and of course, if someone needs to go on a diet, we support them.”

The mother is careful in how to tell her daughter that she has gained weight, unlike the father, who is directly alarming her that she is “getting fat.” In an effort not to push her daughter to extremes or create insecurities, Olivia urged her daughter to be careful with her diet to fit into the school clothes, emphasising a practical matter rather than a matter of appearance. Nevertheless, it is obvious from the parents’ reactions that the practical issues are rather used as a pretext to motivate their daughter to lose excessive weight without making her feel bad about her appearance.

While weight loss was supported, it was also acknowledged that not everyone can achieve it.

“Constantinos (Father, F19,F24): We must accept... for me, it's about feeling good, health above all, and accepting yourself and being okay with the fact that you're trying, but it doesn't mean that because I have ten extra kilos…”

For Constantinos, accepting the fact that one cannot lose weight appears to be imperative (i.e., “must”). Health and feeling good are prioritised here over weight loss, but an interesting paradox also appears: one should accept their weight, but at the same time keep trying to lose weight. This paradox is clearly reflected in their reactions to their children, as the following quotations show. Emma, below argues in favour of teaching her child self-love and respect, but before “overstretching”:

“Emma (Mother, F10): but also to learn that she first needs to respect and love herself as she is, but I don't want her to overstretch and then love herself; I mean, you understand [...] I'm trying with exercise, with ballet, with gymnastics, to let her understand the value of loving my body and making it good, now without attaching importance to this body, to be a way of life, a daily routine.”

There is an implication that self-love is contingent on maintaining a thin body, where efforts to improve one’s physique are tied to self-worth. Moreover, this ideal body image should be effortlessly maintained, suggesting that, while necessary, it should feel natural rather than forced (i.e., “without attaching importance to the body”). Further, it is interesting to highlight that participants seem to relate the concept of self-love exclusively to how the body looks. There appears to be an emphasis on loving the body image rather than loving the body as a whole, its functions, and how one can take care of it. The paradox returns below, as Emily’s daughter is urged to love herself as she is, meaning to accept how she looks, but also to try and lose weight and maintain it in order to feel better.

Emily (Mother, F11,F14,M18) said, “She needs to love herself as she is, and if she can lose some weight and feel better and maintain it, it would be good; otherwise, she must accept herself as she is and move forward.”

In what follows, we discuss the implications of all three themes and the findings’ contributions to the literature.

Discussion

In this study, three interconnected themes were identified in the ways that parents of adolescents discussed how they perceived their children’s eating practices and the influence of beauty ideals on their body image. First, parents presented weight loss desire as something unquestionably positive and natural and justified certain disordered dieting practices. Second, they linked the slim and fit body type with their ideal of beauty, and they implicitly valorised it, questioning mostly its feasibility for everyone and not its value. Finally, they stigmatised and pathologised the overweight body type by presenting those who eat excessively with certain negative attributes (e.g., lacking self-control, determination, and self-love) and as facing serious physical and psychological risks. They also motivated their children against gaining weight by emphasising health and practical concerns while implicitly also being concerned about appearance. Overall, we could argue that parents sustained implicitly and explicitly body standards that have been criticised as unrealistic and problematic in the way they influence adolescents in particular (Rodgers and Melioli, 2016). What is, however, interesting to discuss further are the contradictions and ambivalences that appeared within each of these themes.

Specifically, four contradictions and ambivalences were identified in the findings, which will be discussed further here. First, parents seemed to encourage or at least eagerly support weight loss, even when they denied that their children were overweight. This has also been identified in related literature (e.g., Davison and Deane, 2010). We suggest that a reason this happens is that they are torn between the societal pressures of ideal bodies to which they adhere (fearing their child becoming obese), while at the same time, they want to avoid characterising their child as overweight or obese due to existing societal stigma or avoid causing their children concerns over their body image. Unavoidably, the conversational context (i.e., discussing EDs and societal pressures for body image) intensifies this ambivalence as they want to avoid being criticised for encouraging unnecessary dieting. This introduced another related contradiction noted in the data, in which parents normalised dieting but also evidently engaged in efforts to justify their dieting encouragement or dieting practices, being aware that it can have harmful effects. Still, though, they either practised or legitimised disordered eating practices that they failed to recognise as such, with potentially damaging implications for their children.

Second, parents outwardly questioned the beauty ideals of the slim and fit body type for their children, but implicitly, they presented non-adherence to these ideals as something children necessarily have to accept rather than actively and purposefully seek. Specifically, parents argued that they try to imbue their children with less appearance-related values, as literature has also indicated (e.g., Siegel et al., 2021; Tort-Nasarre et al., 2023). However, in their efforts to do so, they implicitly presented non-adherence to these standards as a necessary compromise that children have to make if these standards are not easy to reach (i.e., due to their body type restrictions). This contradiction can be understood as an effort to avoid superficial emphasis on appearance and its damaging effect, which parents are aware of (Maor and Cwikel, 2016), while they still value these body ideals.

Third, parents presented being overweight as a health or a practical problem for their children, while they implicitly viewed it also as an appearance-related problem, which they outwardly tried to underestimate. This contradiction stems from the fact that health discourse has replaced discourse around appearance when discussing body image societally (Riley et al., 2022). Also, parents, as our findings and literature suggest, are concerned about incurring psychological problems in their children when they discuss their body image and weight gain (Lydecker et al., 2024; Thomas et al., 2014), thus leading them to adopt this discourse when motivating children against weight gain.

Fourth, parents declared unlimited self-acceptance in terms of body image for their children, while they also limited this to a non-overweight body type. Namely, while parents seemed to be concerned about cultivating self-love and body acceptance in their children, they were at the same time concerned that this would lead children to being careless about weight gain and to becoming obese, a condition that we saw they also pathologised and stigmatised. This contradiction is interesting as it also illuminates how parents restrict self-love to body image acceptance, leading to a distorted, one-dimensional sense of self.

Study contributions and implications

The identified themes and the contradictions illustrate that parents struggle to navigate opposing societal messages, concerns, and values. They are embedded in this culture around body image and partake in sustaining practices that implicitly or explicitly valorise unrealistic body ideals while, at the same time, they also try to criticise and challenge them. As long as these ambivalences and contradictions persist, parents may communicate mixed messages to their children, criticising body ideals while pursuing them for themselves or their children. These mixed messages may create increased pressure and confusion for the children in the ways they experience communication around bodily practices within the family environment.

Our contribution to the literature lies in identifying these ambivalences and contradictions that are largely invisible when focusing solely on the direction and size of the parental influence, as current research predominantly does. These, we suggest, may explain why parents sustain certain problematic practices (e.g., weight-talk, encouragement to diet when not overweight) that are found in the literature or explain tensions that parents experience in communicating about these (Siegel et al., 2021). We emphasise the need to understand the complexity of beliefs around these issues if research intends to support, through its findings, parental experience and communication on issues related to body image and body practices within the family context.

We suggest these findings can be useful in developing literacy and support programs for parents in navigating issues around body image within the family context (e.g., Forbes et al., 2024; McCabe et al., 2016). In order to effectively support parents and families, these programs should go beyond the individual focus (Atkinson et al., 2020) and critically address these contradictions and ambivalences specific to the social context of their participants and the structural conditions that sustain them (Turnbull et al., 2019). In Cyprus, the findings can help initiate further research on the contextual factors that sustain problematic behaviours for parents and children. This way, they can challenge problematic societal messages around the body, their influence on their own, and their children’s beliefs and practices.

Limitations and future directions

Notwithstanding the strengths of the research, the study was based on a sample of parents who were mostly of middle-class backgrounds and higher education. In order to understand the phenomenon of interest more broadly, there is a need to maximise the variety of the selected sample (Bauer and Aarts, 2000). Thus, future research should include parents from various sociocultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, as these may face unique challenges in navigating these issues in the family context due to a lack of resources or different cultural beliefs. Further, as the study is concerned with communication issues, future research should include both parents and their children, comparing their beliefs and practices and identifying convergences and divergences. This could give a valuable insight into the family context.

Conclusion and practical implications

This study illustrates conflicting messages that parents communicate regarding body image and eating practices. These contradictions may contribute to adolescents’ confusion and distress around their bodies. Future interventions should support parents in recognising and addressing these inconsistencies. Practical support may include structured parent workshops, psychoeducational materials and clinical guidance for professionals (therapists, dieticians, general practitioners) working with families. Public health campaigns and school-based programs should also address parental ambivalence, prompt parents to reflect on the implicit messages they transmit, and offer clear strategies for promoting body respect and healthy eating without reinforcing harmful ideals. Addressing these issues at both the family and societal levels is critical for reducing the risks associated with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in adolescence.

ORCID iDs

Irini Kadianaki https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1654-1165

Antonia Psalti https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9667-1738

Ethical considerations

The study received ethics approval from the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee (approval: EEBK ΕΠ, 2023.1.162).

Consent to participate

Written informed consent for participation was provided by each participant in this research.

Consent for publication

Written informed consent for publication was provided by each participant in this research.

Data Availability Statement

Parts of data can be available upon request, but note that the original language is Greek. The lead author has full access to the data reported in the manuscript.*