Do Body Image Problems and Parental Weight Comments Predict Latino Young Adults' Depressive Symptoms?

Introduction:The number of young adults experiencing body image problems is increasing at an alarming rate. While body image research has primarily focused on European American girls and women, more recent studies suggest that Latino (male and female) young adults report body image issues and that these problems may affect their mental health. Given the centrality of the family in Latino culture, it is likely that the messages young Latino adults receive from family may contribute to body image perceptions and their mental health. In this project, we explore whether body image problems (as measured by eating problems and appearance concerns) and parental weight comments predict depressive symptoms in a sample of Latino young adults.

 

Method: 198 Latino young adults (ages 18-25 years of age) were recruited from local universities. Participants mean age was 20.59 years (SD 1.77), 70% were female, 78% were born in the U.S., and 43% were the first in their family to attend college. Participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire (measures depressive symptoms; Kroenke et al., 2001); Parental Comments Scale (measures maternal and paternal positive and negative weight comments; Rodgers et al., 2009); and Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (measures eating problems and appearance concerns; Fairburn & Beglin, 1994).

Results: Females were more likely than males to report eating problems and appearance concerns, receiving negative maternal comments about weight, and higher depressive symptoms. Bivariate analyses revealed that age was not significantly related to any study variables, however, negative comments about weight from fathers, and eating problems and appearance concerns were associated with depressive symptoms. A linear regression was run to determine which variables best predicted depressive symptoms. The overall model was significant and revealed that parental (both maternal and paternal) positive comments about weight, and eating problems and appearance concerns predicted depressive symptoms. Specifically, maternal positive comments were positively associated with depressive symptoms, paternal positive comments were negatively associated with depressive symptoms, and eating problems and appearance concerns were positively related to depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that Latino young adults’ eating problems and appearance concerns and parental weight comments are related to mental health. We also found that the influence of parental comments differed by parent. Our findings may be useful for prevention programmers interested in promoting Latino young adults’ mental health and body image perceptions.