Investigating parental influences on children's body image development : the transmission of attitudes and beliefs in [the] food and eating domain

This research had three main aims. Firstly, to investigate young children's body image in the context of age, gender and social class. Secondly to investigate the transmission' . . of appearance related information via direct commentary, modelling and parental child feeding practices from mother to child in the feeding environment. Finally to evaluate the factors which motivate mothers to employ control over children's food. and eating behaviour. The three main objectives were met through two phases of research. Phase one involved four focus groups (n=18) in which mothers discussed children's body image concerns and common child feeding practices. Subsequently hypothesises were generated and tested in Phase two; a survey of379 children and 316 of their mothers. Children completed the Revised Body Esteem Scale (Mendelson & White, 1982) and . . the Collins Figure Rating Scale (Collins, 1991) in a semi-structured interview; Their mothers completed a postal questionnaire including the Child Feeding Questionnaire (Birch, Johnson, Grimm-Thomas & Fisher, 1998) and other instruments based upon feeding attitudes and behaviours. 'Results suggest that from age four, children report body image disturbances. Females and 'middle class children are at greater risk than males and working class c~ildren for developing body image disturbances. Middle class children are at increased 'risk of developing body image disturbance than working class children: Boys and girl's body esteem, and girl's body dissatisfaction are related to their . mother's level of concern\vith weight and shape and as such support .is provided for modelling theory. Results indicate that higher levels ofcontrol are associated with higher levels ofbody image disturbances for both male and female chi}dren, providing support for theory that excessive control has detrimental effects to children's development. With regards to th.e thir.d objective results.indicate that maternal values, especially weight related values, has implications for the level of control mothers employ' and the level ofbody image disturbance/children experience. 7.3.2.2Problems of Vocational & Technical Education In Kuwait there are several problems affecting the development and the efficient functioning of the technical education and training courses. Some of the main problems can be summarised as follows (Wadi. 2(l02: 34): • A high dropout rate amongst trainees and withdrawal from studying, which is attributed to low achievement in the general secondary certiticate. • Inadequate incentives and motives for students to enrol and trainees to complete their studies. Generally, students do not show much interest in vocational education. They opt for secondary courses that lead to university education. Given that the Government of Kuwait offers priority employment opportunities to university graduates, from the perspective of an individual the choice of university education seems to be logical and rational. • The influence of social and traditional customs on the ability and willingness of trainees to enrol and complete their studies. A study carried out by AI-Enezi (2000: 149) showed that 66% of the secondary- schools' students, and 85.5% of employees believe that the unwillingness to study and take up a job in the technical and vocational fields is because of the inferior social attitude towards those -who are taking vocational qualifications. • The quality of the training institutes and schools is below the required standard, due to inetliciency of the training of personnel, the low standard of training techniques, and the lack of sufficient personnel needed for training, especially when training needs specialised instructors (Burney et al. 2002).EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo