The relationship between parenting style and peer influence and adolescent body image

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-162).Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics.The effects of parenting styles on different variables have been researched for many years. There is much data existing on adolescent body image and the influence of peers on adolescents. However, determining if parenting style affects adolescent body image has never been looked at to our knowledge. The objectives of this research were to determine the relationship between parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, or neglectful) and adolescent body image and to determine if health beliefs, nutrition knowledge, and exercise patterns intervene. In addition, the relationship between peer influence and adolescent body image and the intervening factors of health beliefs, nutrition knowledge, and exercise patterns were also looked at. Two other researchers taught nutrition education to adolescents aged 14 to 1 8 years in a rural community. Part of this study performed by these two researchers entailed distributing an adolescent questionnaire, body image questionnaire, nutrition knowledge pre-test, and health belief questionnaire to the teenagers. This study involved looking at the data from these questionnaires and performing correlation and multiple regression analysis to determine the relationships between parenting styles and adolescent body image and between peer influence and adolescent body image. These analyses were also used to look at how health beliefs, nutrition knowledge, and exercise patterns intervene with th e above. This is the first study, that we know of, to indicate parenting styles do not appear to directly influence how adolescents feel about their bodies. However, this study does indicate that friends influence adolescent body image. Since a negative body image is related to the development of eating disorder, it is important for parents to observe the influences their adolescents' peers have upon the teenager. Education concerning positive body image should be focused on adolescents and their peers. Additional research concerning parents' own body image and this influence upon their adolescents is needed