Young adults spend hours a day on social media platforms filled with exercise influencers, fitness trends, and other appearance-focused content that can reinforce unrealistic body ideals. And for many of these younger people, the messages they're receiving online are echoed at home, where parents, friends and romantic partners engage in "weight talk"-comments about body size, dieting or weight loss. While these remarks may seem harmless or may even be well-intentioned, they can contribute to body dissatisfaction, disordered eating and internalized weight stigma, particularly during the vulnerable developmental years of adolescence and young adulthood.
A new study from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health examines the impact of "weight talk." By tracking 994 individuals from adolescence into adulthood, researchers explored how encouragement to diet from parents and romantic partners evolves over time and when it has the greatest impact on body satisfaction. Participants were first surveyed as teenagers and followed over the next 13 years. Researchers analyzed the extent to which participants experienced weight talk from parents and romantic partners, and how these experiences related to their body satisfaction.
The paper draws on data from Project EAT, a long-running University of Minnesota study led by Professor Dianne Neumark-Sztainer that examines factors that influence weight and health.
Published in the journal Body Image, the study found:
- Weight talk decreases with age, but doesn't lose its impact. Although encouragement to diet declined significantly from adolescence into adulthood, it remained strongly associated with lower body satisfaction across these years, indicating that the impact of weight talk persists across age.
- Different relationships matter at different ages. Weight talk from mothers was linked to lower body satisfaction consistently from early adolescence through age 30. Weight talk from fathers was most strongly associated with body dissatisfaction during the teen years and early adulthood, while comments from romantic partners were especially important in young adulthood.
- Higher body weight is linked to greater exposure to weight talk. Individuals with higher body mass index reported more weight talk from all sources, placing them at greater risk for body dissatisfaction and related harms.
"By following individuals across more than a decade, we were able to see not just how weight talk changes across key developmental periods, but when it matters most for body image concerns," said lead author Anna Hochgraf, a researcher at Purdue University. "We found that even though weight talk decreases across adolescence and young adulthood, it may continue to shape how people feel about their bodies. Given how closely body dissatisfaction is tied to mental health challenges like disordered eating, low self-esteem and depression, our research highlights an important issue affecting young people and underscores the need for prevention programming."
"Body image isn't built in isolation; it is shaped by interactions with the people closest to us," said Kayla Johnson, a researcher in the School of Public Health and study co-author. "Our findings show that there are key periods in development when these comments may be especially harmful. Understanding when young people are most vulnerable can help guide efforts to prevent long-term body image concerns."
Future research will further explore how weight talk changes over time to help inform efforts to reduce body image concerns when individuals are most vulnerable to its effects.
About the School of Public Health
The University of Minnesota School of Public Health improves the health and wellbeing of populations and communities around the world by bringing innovative research, learning, and concrete actions to today's biggest health challenges. We prepare some of the most influential leaders in the field, and partner with health departments, communities, and policymakers to advance health equity for all. Learn more at sph.umn.edu.
