The aim of this research was to investigate anxiety symptoms and perception of parents among female adolescents. We also examined the difference between eating habits and perception of mothers in two cultural settings: Split and Zagreb; 143 female high school adolescents from Split and Zagreb participated in this research; 75 from Split and 68 from Zagreb. The participants completed the Eating Attitude Test (EAT-26; Ambrosi-Randić and Pokrajac-Bulian 2005), Scale of Children’s Anxiety (Purić, 1992) and Perceptions of Parents Scale (POPS; Merkaš and Brajša-Žganec, 2009). The results confirmed the importance of anxiety and family factors in the development of eating disorders. Participants with more symptoms of eating disorders showed more symptoms of anxiety and perceived their mothers as less involved and less warm. The perception of mother’s support of autonomy wasn’t significant in any aspect of the research, nor was the perception of father’s involvement, warmth and autonomy support. Symptoms of anxiety and perception of father’s autonomy turned out to be the only significant predictors of eating disorder’s symptoms.

anxiety, perception of parents, eating disorders, parental involvement