10 things every parent should know

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TEN THINGS EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW

1. Our body size is a given, like our height or hair color. Yet, by middle school, 30-50 percent of American girls say they feel too fat and 20-40 percent are dieting; many beginning by age 10. By high school, 40-60% of girls feel overweight and are trying to lose weight .

2. Young girls say that they are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of cancer, nuclear war, or losing their parents. Before the onset of puberty there is no difference in depression rates between boys and girls. By age 15, girls are twice as likely to become depressed and 10 times as likely to develop an eating disorder than their male peers.

3. Today, the average fashion model weighs 23% less than the average woman.

4. The average age for onset of eating disorders is during adolescence. While self-esteem for both girls and boys is strong as children, there is a significant drop in girls' self-esteem around age of 12.

5. In a survey of working-class 5th to 12th grade suburban girls, 69 percent reported that magazine pictures influence their idea of the perfect body shape; 47 percent reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures.

6. Media literacy enhances adolescents' abilities to view ads with skepticism, making them more likely to recognize persuasion techniques that advertisers use, and distinguish whether ads are truthful or misleading.

7. Clinique Laboratories, Inc. surveyed 500 moms of teen daughters and found their number one New Year's Resolutions was "lose weight/eat less". Yet 22 percent of the same mothers list the fear of their daughter developing an eating disorder among their top concerns. Only 16 percent of the 500 teens interviewed in the same survey worried about developing an eating disorder.

8. Anecdotal evidence suggests that comments from male family members trigger dieting, and teasing is associated with weight-control attempts in adolescence.

9. According to data presented to the National Institutes of Health, 33-40 percent of adult women are trying to lose weight at any given time -fueled by a cultural perception of a feminine "ideal" that is much too thin for good health.

10. How important are Dads? Girls with active and hardworking dads are more ambitious, more successful in school, attend college more often, and are more likely to attain careers of their own. They are less dependent, more self-protective, and less likely to date or marry abusive men.

To learn more about the nonprofit group Dads and Daughters, visit www.dadsanddaughters.org