Family interaction in eating disorder patients and normal controls

✍ Scribed by Kog, Elly ;Vandereycken, Walter

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 841 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0276-3478
• DOI: 10.1002/1098-108x(198901)8:1<11::aid-eat2260080103>3.0.co;2-1

✦ Synopsis

The families of 30 eating-disorder patients were matched with 30 normal control families on social class, family size, and age and sex of the patient. We tested if the age (adolescent or young adult) and the symptomatology of the patient (restricting anorexic, bulimic anorexic, and normal-weight bulimic) had a significant effect on a behavioral and a self-report measure of cohesion, adaptability, and conflict. The age of the patient proved to be nonsignificant. The eating-disorder families showed more stability and discussed less openly disagreements between parents and children. O n the remaining family measures, the anorexic (restricting and bulimic) and bulimic families revealed a completely opposite interaction pattern. The anorexic family had interpersonal boundary problems and a stable and conflictavoidant way of interacting, which was experienced as nonconflictual and cohesive by the patient too. The bulimic family showed strong interpersonal boundaries, a less stable organization, and less avoidance of disagreements. The patient herself also described her family as conflictual, uncohesive, and badly organized.

Since Minuchin and his colleagues (Minuchin et al., 1975;Minuchin, Rosman, & Baker, 1978) and Selvini-Palazzoli (1974) have stressed the importance of the family in the development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa, many investigators have included family related variables in their study of this problem. These variables are for the most part demographic family characteristics such as social class, parental age at the time of patient's birth, patient's birth order, and incidence of broken homes [for a systematic overview of the findings, see Kog & Vandereycken (1985)l. More recently, research has been published com-Elly KO& Ph.D., was at the time of the investigation Senior Research