Impressionable girls have been influenced by their mother's attitude to dieting, it has been claimed

Girls whose mothers are on a diet are almost twice as likely to have an eating disorder, a poll of more than 500 teenagers has found.

Many girls say their mother has the biggest influence on their own self-image and they feel damaged by the effects of their mum's dieting and views on food.

The survey of 512 teenage girls, with an average age of 14 (age range of 12 to 18) found 6% had an eating disorder, rising to one in 10 among those whose mothers diet.

Almost four out of 10 girls (38%) said their mother had the biggest influence on how they perceived themselves.

Two-thirds (66%) said they had heard their mum complaining about her own weight and 56% have mothers who are on a diet. This is despite 68% describing their mother's body size as perfectly normal.

The survey also found that more than half of teenage girls surveyed (51%) have dieted. This becomes 59% among girls whose mothers diet. While almost eight out of 10 (78%) girls worry about their weight - 20% say they worry about their looks all the time.

One in five girls said they are criticised by family members for being "too big" and 51% of those have been hurt by their parents talking about their size, according to the survey.

Annabel Brog, the editor of teen magazine Sugar, whose readers were surveyed, said: "Every single issue of Sugar magazine features fashion modelled by 'regular' girls, with different body sizes and shapes, to prove all bodies are gorgeous when they're well fed and exercised.

"But it stands to reason that a girl's 'thinheritance' - the attitude to food and body-shape she is exposed to day-after-day in her home - is going to be more powerful than anything we can print in a magazine.

"And of course many girls feel their mums, who typically diet and worry about their own weight, are their greatest influence."