Maternal perception of children's weight in relation to eating disorders

Abnormal perception of body weight in girls has been reported previously (1), and distorted perception of body shape is cited as one of the pathogenetic factors in eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa (2,3). Parent-child relationships should also be considered as one of the factors possibly contributing to the onset of the eating disorders (3,4). In the present paper we shall examine whether mothers perceive the weight of their sons and daughters correctly or not, and we shall also compare the results with the perceptions of the children themselves, which we have reported previously in this journal (1). Five outline drawings (-20% to 20% overweight), used in the previous study (1), were shown to the mothers, who were asked to select the drawings which they considered to represent the body weight of their sons (n=130) and daughters (n=125), who were aged 6 to 18 years. The mean body weights of the boys and girls in the study sample were 6.0% and 6.6% overweight, respectively. The mothers perceived the weight of their sons to be significantly (P<0.01) less than the actual weight of these boys. The mean difference between the perceived weight and the actual weight was 10.4%. The mothers' perception of their daughters' weight was also 7.9% less than the actual weight (P<0.05) (Fig. 1).