The correlation of Chinese mothers’ eating attitudes and psychological characteristics with their children’s eating attitudes, as well as the gender effect on eating attitudes of children

OBJECTIVE: No study has examined the connection between the mothers’ weight concerns, their psychological characteristics as well as their educational level and their children’s weight concerns in China. Nor has the gender effect on the eating attitudes of pre- to post-pubertal Chinese children been explored (aged 10–13). METHOD: The children (girls N=138, boys N=103) were given a Chinese version of the EDI-C. Their mothers completed a Chinese version of the EDI-2. The Bivariate’s (Pearson) correlation was used to examine the relationship between the mothers’ weight concerns, psychological characteristics and educational level with their children’s weight concerns. An Independent-Samples Ttest was conducted to comparing the EDI-C subscales of the girls and boys groups. RESULTS: Regarding the mothers’ and children’s eating attitudes, there was a significant correlation between the mothers’ weight concerns as well as their psychological characteristics with their children’s eating attitudes. No significant relationship was found between the mothers’ educational level and the children’s eating attitudes. According to the scores of the EDI-C questionnaire, there was no general significant gender difference between Chinese children (aged 10–13). However, a differential gender effect on the body dissatisfaction of children was found for the subgroup of elders (aged 13) indicating a differential developmental dynamic. CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese mothers’ weight concerns and their psychological characteristics correlated with their children’s eating attitudes. A gender effect on the Chinese children’s eating attitudes (aged 13) was established.