Poster #17 - Parent and child-driven effects on body image dissatisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic

• In Event: Poster Session 19

Abstract

Parents are major socializing agents in their children’s lives and can greatly influence their body image development (Rodgers & Chabrol, 2009). Developmental research has recently begun investigating the potential presence of child-driven effects, which are child characteristics that influence parental outcomes, in addition to parent-driven effects (e.g., Guimond et al., 2016). However, these bi-directional effects have rarely been considered when studying body image in families, despite early evidence of their presence in mother-adolescent relationships (Hart et al., 2021), and when investigating parent-child weight-loss (Fowler et al., 2020). Given the significant amount of time that families have been spending together in recent years due to the social restrictions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic (Liu et al., 2021), these bidirectional familial effects may currently be more influential. Therefore, the current study investigated parent and child-driven effects of body image dissatisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The moderating influence of parents’ use of acceptance as a coping strategy during the pandemic was also investigated as a protective factor, given its ties to improved mental health in children and adults during the pandemic and body image satisfaction (Guimond et al., 2021; Gurvich et al., 2021; Prefit et al., 2020). Lastly, the moderating effect of child gender was investigated due to the inconsistent results found in the literature regarding its role in familial body image dissatisfaction transmission. 175 parents of 7-12-year-old children (M = 9.2) were asked to complete a questionnaire, at two time points, approximately five months apart, on their child’s and their own body image satisfaction, and their acceptance of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to investigate both parent and child-driven effects. Parents’ acceptance of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly moderated child and parent-driven effects. Parents were more likely to be influenced by, and influence, their child’s body image dissatisfaction over time if they had low levels of acceptance. Child-driven effects were also significantly moderated by child gender, as sons were significantly more likely to influence their mother’s body image satisfaction over time. These novel findings suggest that both parent and child-driven effects should be considered when investigating the familial transmission of body image dissatisfaction. Given that body image dissatisfaction can lead to harmful outcomes, these findings can help inform future family-based intervention and prevention programs targeting body image satisfaction: the promotion of acceptance as a coping strategy, and the role of child gender may need to be considered.

Authors

• Olivia Gardam, University of Ottawa
  Presenting Author

• Sahej Kaur

• Laila Kokenberg-Gallant

• Elizabeth St. John, University of Ottawa

• Noémie Carbonneau

• Fanny-Alexandra Guimond, University of Ottawa