Parental bonds and body dissatisfaction in a clinical sample: The mediating roles of attachment anxiety and media internalization.
We evaluated an attachment theory model in which mother and father care were hypothesized to be indirectly related to body dissatisfaction mediated by attachment anxiety and media internalization. Participants were 232 women diagnosed with an eating disorder who completed a retrospective measure of parental bonds, and measures of attachment anxiety, media internalization, and body image. Mother care was negatively associated with body dissatisfaction, suggesting that recollection of mothers as less caring was directly related to poorer body image. Lower father care, was indirectly associated with greater body dissatisfaction mediated by higher attachment anxiety and higher media internalization. That is, women with an eating disorder who recollected fathers as less caring had higher attachment anxiety, which was related to greater internalizing of media-related thin ideals, that in turn was associated with poorer body image. Mothers and fathers may impact body dissatisfaction by differing mechanisms in clinical samples.
School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, 75 Laurier Ave. E, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
Renee
R
Grenon
School of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa, 75 Laurier Ave. E, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. Electronic address: gtasca@uottawa.ca.
Giorgio A
GA
Tasca
School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, 75 Laurier Ave. E, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
Hilary
H
Maxwell
Department of Psychology, The Ottawa Hospital, 501 Smyth Rd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0H9, Canada.
Louise
L
Balfour
Department of Psychiatry, The Ottawa Hospital, 501 Smyth Rd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0H9, Canada.
Genevieve
G
Proulx
Department of Psychiatry, The Ottawa Hospital, 501 Smyth Rd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0H9, Canada.
Hany
H
Bissada
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult
Attachment; Body image; Eating disorders; Media internalization; Parental bonds