For parents with eating disorders, preoccupation with their own body shape, a fear of fatness and a chaotic eating style may all adversely affect their ability to care for and nurture their child (McNicholas, 1996) and, indeed, eating psychopathology has been related to serious parenting difficulties (Woodside & Shekter-Wolfson, 1990). Research has shown that mothers with eating disorder symptoms may implement greater control in their feeding interactions with their children, in both clinical groups (e.g., Stein, Woolley, Cooper, & Fairburn, 1994) and non-clinical parent samples (e.g., Tiggemann & Lowes, 2002). Mothers with eating pathology have also been shown to withdraw from the feeding situation (Waugh & Bulik, 1999). While the feeding practices of mothers displaying eating disorder symptoms have been studied, the general parenting practices of individuals with eating disorder symptoms have received little research attention (Mazzeo, Zucker, Gerke, Mitchell, & Bulik, 2005).
Many studies classify parenting into three different styles, each characterised by varying degrees of parental warmth and control (e.g., Baumrind, 1971 and Darling and Steinberg, 1993). Authoritative parents impose clear demands alongside emotional responsiveness, autonomy granting and warmth. Authoritarian parents are typified by being overly controlling and demanding and are often emotionally unresponsive. Permissive parents tend to impose little control and may be neglectful or overly indulgent. Previous research has suggested that an authoritative parenting style may facilitate optimal child development, while authoritarian and permissive parenting have been associated with less than optimal outcomes (Baumrind, 1971 and Darling and Steinberg, 1993). Less responsive parenting has been found to be associated with maternal eating disorder psychopathology (Stein, Woolley, & McPherson, 1999). Mothers with eating disorders have been found to be more intrusive and verbally controlling during both mealtime and play interactions with their infants (Stein et al., 1994 and Stein et al., 2001). These findings accord with the notion that the need for control is a central feature of eating pathology. Given that previous work has identified that mothers with eating psychopathology may engage in controlling interactions with their children (Stein et al., 1994 and Stein et al., 2001), it is likely that this need for control may extend to their general parenting style, and that an authoritarian parenting style may be commonly seen in these women. However, some mothers with eating disorder symptoms may avoid conflict by withdrawing themselves from stressful eating interactions with their children (Waugh & Bulik, 1999). If we extrapolate this withdrawal from conflicts over eating to other areas of parenting, we may therefore also expect to see mothers with more eating disorder symptoms exhibiting higher rates of permissive, withdrawn or neglectful parenting styles in general.
Clinical work has found mothers with eating disorders to show concerns about general parenting (Bryant-Waugh et al., 2007a and Bryant-Waugh et al., 2007b) and, indeed, general parenting interventions are recommended for women with eating disorders who are also mothers (Bryant-Waugh et al., 2007a and Bryant-Waugh et al., 2007b). The little research which has considered the parenting styles of those with eating psychopathology found no significant differences in the parenting styles of mothers with and without eating disorders (Agras, Hammer, & McNicholas, 1999). However, no research to date has examined which particular styles of parenting may be implemented by those displaying eating disorder symptoms in a non-clinical parent sample.
The current study aimed to examine whether symptoms of eating disorders are related to less than optimal parenting styles. It was predicted that higher levels of reported eating disorder symptoms would be related to less adaptive parenting styles (i.e. more authoritarian or more permissive). It was also predicted that lower levels of eating disorder symptoms would be associated with a more authoritative parenting style.
