Childhood obesity is an urgent and growing problem in the United States. A recent study out of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Columbus Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, asked young girls a simple question – “What do you think of your body?” First, they asked the young girls. Then they asked their mothers. The answers were very different and could shed light on one reason why children are getting bigger.

Researchers examined a mother’s and a daughter’s perception of the daughter’s body image. It was found that the mother’s and the daughter’s view of the daughter’s body image differed drastically.

“Mothers and daughters have dissimilar perceptions about the daughter’s body. While daughters usually see themselves accurately in terms of weight, their mothers tend to be more likely to visualize them as thinner than they are.

This may support a young girl’s positive body image,” Kellee Patterson, MPH, the study’s author in the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Children’s, said. “But at the same time, it may limit a mother’s ability to recognize a weight issue early in their daughter’s life.”

The study included mother-daughter pairs. Daughters (9-10 years old) at low and normal Body Mass Index (BMI) percentiles expressed satisfaction with their body size, whereas their mothers felt they were too thin. In higher BMI percentiles, the daughters appropriately felt they were too heavy, whereas their mothers felt they were near ideal weight. The mother’s own weight status did not influence their perceptions of their daughter.

The daughters at the higher end of normal BMI, however, seemed to be sensitized by their mother’s body. If the mother was overweight, it made them feel less satisfied with their body compared with girls whose mother was normal weight. This could be interpreted to suggest that a daughter’s self-perception is not influenced by her mother’s view of her, but rather by her mother’s body shape.

“With childhood obesity rates on the rise in the U.S., combating this growing trend needs to start at an early age,” Robert Murray, MD, director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Children’s Hospital and a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, said. “This study showed us that there is a significant difference between the perceptions of mothers and daughters that may constrain our efforts as healthcare providers to address obesity early in the child’s life.”