Sex Roles, Vol. 41, No. 3/4, 1999 Relationships Among Adolescent Girls’ Eating Behaviors and Their Parents’ Weight-Related Attitudes and Behaviors Eleanor H. Wertheim La Trobe University Virginia Mee and Susan J. Paxton Uni versity of Melbourne This article examines adolescent girls’ weight loss behaviors and possible parent in¯uences related to weight and shape. Questionnaires were completed by 369 grade 10 girls and their parents. Findings suggested that parent encour- agement to lose weight was a more signi®cant predictor of daughter dietary restraint than parents’ own dietary restraint le vels. Mother in¯uence variables added signi®cantly to a regression equation after father in¯uences had been entered, but the re verse was not the case. Parents’ food abstaining behaviors, such as fasting and skipping meals, predicted food abstaining in daughters. Most ®ndings were replicated when daughter body size was controlled for. Implications for models of the transmission of diet and weight-related values from parent to child are discussed. Dieting behaviors and eating disorders are predominantly gender linked. Reviews of eating disorder prevalence rates indicate that 9 out of 10 cases of eating disorders occur in women (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Dieting behaviors are also more likely to occur in women (Wertheim et al., 1992; Worsley, Worsley, McCommon, & Silva, 1990). Similarly, ado- lescent and young adult females, in comparison to their male counterparts, are more likely to aspire to an ideal body size smaller than their current size (Fallon & Rozin, 1985; Tiggemann & Pennington, 1990; Wertheim et al., 1992). 1 To whom correspondence should be addressed at La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic. 3083 Australia (email: e.wertheim@latrobe.edu.au). 169 0360-0025/99/0800-0169$1 6.00/0 Ó 1999 Plenum Publishing Corporation