N. Carbonneau et al.
/ Body Image 33 (2020) 106–114
daughters’ self-compassion and body esteem are related to their
own emotional eating, and how mothers’ self and body attitudes
and eating behavior are related to their daughters’ attitudes and
behaviors.
1.1. Self-compassion
Self-compassion is a healthy attitude and relationship to oneself
that has gained a lot of attention in recent years. Self-compassion
involves treating oneself with kindness, warmth, and concern
when we fail, suffer, or feel inadequate, recognizing that pain
and mistakes are part of the human nature (Neff, 2003b). Rather
than berating oneself with self-criticism, self-compassion implies
accepting all aspects of oneself and offering nonjudgmental under-
standing of one’s shortcomings. Neff (2003a, 2003b) distinguished
three components to self-compassion. First, self-kindness involves
treating oneself warmly and gently rather than being harsh on one-
self for suffering. Second, common humanity is the recognition that
we are not alone in our suffering because difficult experiences are
a common human experience. Finally, mindfulness refers to the
capacity to be conscious of difficult experiences or painful emotions
without overidentifying with them. Research has shown that self-
compassion is related to several positive outcomes. For example,
self-compassion is strongly associated with psychological well-
being (Neff, 2009; Neff & McGehee, 2010). It is also related to greater
life satisfaction and feelings of social connectedness as well as
less anxiety and depression (Krieger, Altenstein, Baettig, Doerig, &
Holtforth, 2013; Neff, 2003a). Research by Homan and Sirois (2017)
suggests that self-compassion may diminish perceived stress and
promote health protective practices.
Self-compassion is also related to positive outcomes in
interpersonal contexts. For example, research has shown that self-
compasionate individuals are likely to treat others compassionately
(Dovidio, Crocker, & Canevello, 2008; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2005;
Neff & Pommier, 2012). In addition, self-compassionate individu-
als report a greater sense of satisfaction with relationships (Yarnell
& Neff, 2012). Results of a study conducted by Neff and Beretvas
(2013) suggest that self-compassion is related to kindness towards
relationship partners, as assessed by the partner’s perceptions of
one’s behavior. More specifically, individuals with higher levels of
self-compassion were described by their romantic partners as more
caring (e.g., affectionate, warm, and considerate), accepting, and
supportive of their partner’s autonomy. They were also described
as presenting higher levels of relatedness with their partners. These
results suggest that self-compassion has important implications for
both the self and others.
Studies that have examined the role of self-compassion in the
mother-child relationship are still scarce. Mothers reporting higher
levels of self-compassion have been found to be less critical of
their children (Psychogiou et al., 2016). Moreira, Gouveia, Carona,
Silva, and Canavarro (2015) argue that self-compassionate moth-
ers may be more likely to display caring behaviors toward their
children and may be more accepting toward their children’s limi-
tations and failures. Research by Moreira, Gouveia, and Canavarro
(2018) uncovered a positive association between mindful parent-
ing (as reported by parents; 96 % mothers) and their adolescents’
self-compassion, an association that was partially mediated by
adolescents’ secure attachment to their parent. These authors
argue that parent-child relationships characterized by affection
and mindful awareness are likely to foster children’s develop-
ment of self-compassion. Further, a study conducted by Neff and
McGehee (2010) suggests that teenagers with low levels of self-
compassion were more likely to have critical mothers. Using a
sample of 572 mother-adolescent dyads, Gouveia, Canavarro, and
Moreira (2018) showed that mindful parenting is associated with
107
adolescents’ emotional eating through its links with adolescents’
self-compassion and body shame (sequentially).
Overall, research suggests that self-compassion is an attitude
that grows within the family environment (e.g., Caldwell & Shaver,
2015; Gouveia et al., 2018; Moreira et al., 2018; Neff & McGehee,
2010). However, to our knowledge, no study has yet examined
whether adult daughters of self-compassionate mothers are more
likely to be self-compassionate themselves, and, in turn, to have a
more positive relationship with food and their body.
1.2. Body esteem
Body esteem refers to positive self-evaluations about one’s
appearance (e.g., Mendelson, Mendelson, & White, 2001). A
growing body of literature supports the protective role that self-
compassion can play in buffering against low body esteem and
negative eating behaviors (Braun et al., 2016). For example, pre-
vious research shows that self-compassion predicts fewer body
concerns independently of self-esteem (Wasylkiw, Mackinnon, &
Maclellan, 2012), and research by Neff and Vonk (2009) shows that
individuals who are more self-compassionate are less likely to base
their self-worth on appearance. Self-compassion may help protect
women’s body appreciation during body-related threats such as
body comparison (Homan & Tylka, 2015; Siegel, Huelleman, Hillier,
& Campbell, 2020). Self-compassion also appears to help buffer
against the negative body esteem impact of high body mass index
(BMI; Kelly, Vimalakanthan, & Miller, 2014). Adding experimen-
tal evidence, short-term interventions to increase self-compassion
have been shown to decrease body dissatisfaction (Albertson, Neff,
& Dill-Shackleford, 2015; Moffitt, Neumann, & Williamson, 2018;
Stern & Engeln, 2018) and increase body appreciation (Guest et al.,
2019; Seekis, Bradley, & Duffy, 2017).
1.3. Emotional eating
Emotional eating refers to eating in response to negative emo-
tional states, such as anxiety, boredom, or sadness (e.g., Thayer,
2001). This eating behavior has been linked to the inability to
adequately regulate emotions, especially painful or stressful ones
(Evers, Marijn Stok, & de Ridder, 2010). For emotional eaters,
eating represents an avoidant coping strategy to temporarily alle-
viate negative emotions (e.g., Braet et al., 2014). It has been
suggested that emotional eating could play a role in obesity as
well as in the development of eating disorders (e.g., bulimia;
Ansari, Ebrahimzadeh Mousavi, Mohammadkhani, Aminoroaya, &
Sabzainpoor, 2018; Ricca et al., 2012; Spence & Courbasson, 2012).
Similar to its association with body esteem, research sug-
gests that self-compassion might act as a protective factor against
developing maladaptive eating behaviors such as emotional eating
(Braun et al., 2016). For example, self-compassionate individuals
are able to hold negative emotions or thoughts in mindful aware-
ness, without feeling the urge to avoid or escape them (Neff, 2011).
In a study conducted by Adams and Leary (2007), dieters who
had been primed to feel more self-compassionate experienced less
distress and were less likely to overeat following diet breaking. Sim-
ilarly, based on a within-person design, Kelly and Stephen (2016)
reported that day-to-day fluctuations in women’s self-compassion
contributed to day-to-day fluctuations in body image and eating
behavior such as intuitive eating.
1.4. The present research
Abundant empirical research has provided support for the influ-
ence of mothers on their young daughter’s body image and eating
behaviors (e.g., Birch & Fisher, 2000). Moreover, research has shown
that mothers and their teenage daughters share many similarities