Like mother, like daughter? An examination of the emotive responses to food

The modelling of sub-clinical eating disorders and emotive responses to food between mothers and their early adolescent daughters was investigated. Twenty dyads viewed images of food and rated their levels of happiness, fear and disgust. Results suggest similarities between mothers' and daughters' emotive responses, but the exact nature of this relationship differed across food type and response type. Disordered eating was only related to responses to the low-calorie foods. Furthermore, mother's eating disorders symptoms were related to concerns about shape and weight in the daughters (all ps < .05). These results suggest a transmission of emotive responses to food within the dyad which may inform family-based intervention efforts in the prevention of eating disorders in young women.