The hidden cost of parental psychological control: exploring psychological and sociocultural pathways to disordered eating attitudes in university students

Abstract Background Presence of disordered eating attitudes adversely affects individuals’ quality of life and constitutes a significant risk factor for the development of eating disorders. University students represent an at-risk group, although comprehensive models addressing familial, eating-specific, and sociocultural factors together remain lacking. This study examined whether intuitive eating, emotion regulation difficulties, and sociocultural appearance pressures mediate the relationship between parental psychological control and disordered eating attitudes. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in the United Kingdom with 231 university students aged 18–36. Participants completed online questionnaires assessing sociodemographic characteristics, parental psychological control, intuitive eating, emotion regulation difficulties, sociocultural appearance pressures, disordered eating, anxiety and depression symptoms, and self-reported height and weight. Correlation and mediation analyses examined indirect associations between parental psychological control and disordered eating attitudes. Results Higher parental psychological control was associated with greater disordered eating attitudes ( β = 0.27, p < 0.001), greater emotion regulation difficulties ( β = 0.25, p < 0.001), higher sociocultural appearance pressures ( β = 0.28, p < 0.001), and lower intuitive eating ( β = − 0.22, p < 0.001). Significant indirect associations emerged through intuitive eating ( β = 0.08, 95% CI [0.02, 0.15]) and sociocultural appearance pressures ( β = 0.11, 95% CI [0.05, 0.18]), but not through emotion regulation difficulties ( β = 0.01, 95% CI [− 0.02, 0.03]). Conclusions Parental psychological control was associated with greater disordered eating attitudes among university students, with intuitive eating and sociocultural appearance pressures emerging as significant indirect pathways. By integrating familial, eating-specific, and sociocultural factors within a single model, these findings highlight the potentially important role of intuitive eating and sociocultural appearance pressures in understanding vulnerability to disordered eating attitudes among university students. Level of evidence III: Evidence obtained from a cohort study.