ArticlePloS one2017
Familial transmission of a body-related attentional bias - An eye-tracking study in a nonclinical sample of female adolescents and their mothers.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Attentional Biases Towards Body-Related Stimuli in Healthy Males: A Systematic Review.Psychological reports · 2025Pooled it
- Food and body-related attentional biases in children and adolescents with eating disorder symptoms, overweight and obesity: a systematic review.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Review
- Transgenerational transmission of eating disorders: the role of eating disorder symptoms and socio-cultural attitudes.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Reduced body-image disturbance by body-image interventions is associated with neural-response changes in visual and social processing regions: a preliminary study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Article
- Can Parental Body Dissatisfaction Predict That of Children? A Study on Body Dissatisfaction, Body Mass Index, and Desire to Diet in Children Aged 9-11 and Their Families.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPrevious research indicates that body image disturbance is transmitted from mother to daughter via modeling of maternal body-related behaviors and attitudes (indirect transmission) and via maternal body-related feedback (direct transmission). So far, the transmission of body-related attentional biases, which according to cognitive-behavioral theories play a prominent role in the development and maintenance of eating disorders, has not been analyzed. The current eye-tracking study applied the concepts of direct and indirect transmission to body-related attentional biases by examining body-related viewing patterns on self- and other-pictures within mother-daughter dyads.
methodsEye movements of N = 82 participants (n = 41 healthy female adolescents, mean age 15.82 years, SD = 1.80, and their mothers, mean age 47.78 years, SD = 4.52) were recorded while looking at whole-body pictures of themselves and a control peer. Based on fixations on self-defined attractive and unattractive body areas, visual attention bias scores were calculated for mothers and daughters, representing the pattern of body-related attention allocation. Based on mothers' fixations on their own daughter's and the adolescent peer's body, a second visual attention bias score was calculated, reflecting the mothers' viewing pattern on their own daughter.
resultsAnalysis of variance revealed an attentional bias for self-defined unattractive body areas in adolescents. The girls' visual attention bias score correlated significantly with their mothers' bias score, indicating indirect transmission, and with their mothers' second bias score, indicating direct transmission. Moreover, the girls' bias score correlated significantly with negative body-related feedback from their mothers.
conclusionsFemale adolescents show a deficit-oriented attentional bias for one's own and a peer's body. The correlated body-related attention patterns imply that attentional biases might be transmitted directly and indirectly from mothers to daughters. Results underline the potential relevance of maternal influences for the development of body image disturbance in girls and suggest specific family-based approaches for the prevention and treatment of eating disorders.
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