Eating Disorder Patients & Parental Authority

AND GENERAL DESIRABILITY FOR CONTROL IN A SAMPLE OF

EATING DISORDER PATIENTS AND COLLEGE STUDENT CONTROLS

The existing literature on causative and correlational factors associated with eating disorders indicates that family characteristics and interactions, as well as power and control issues, may be involved in both the onset and maintenance of these disorders (McKenna, 1989; Mitchell & Eckert, 1987). The established findings in both of these areas may be summarized as follows:

(1) Eating disorders are associated with such factors as lack of family cohesion and inconsistency in parental affection (Scalf-McIver & Thompson, 1989) as well as family anxiety about weight and derogatory attitudes toward the overweight (Wold, 1984).

(2) Eating disorder patients often come from families that inhibit independent and assertive behavior in offspring as well as expression of feelings (Johnson & Flach, 1985; Strober & Humphrey, 1987).

(3) The families of many eating disorder patients are marked by high levels of interpersonal conflict (Johnson & Flach, 1985).

(4) The families of eating disorder patients are either neglectful or over-involved with their offspring (Kog and Vandereycken, 1989).

(5) Family interactions of eating disorder patients lead to disruptions in the development of both a stable identify and self-efficacy (Strober & Humphrey, 1987).

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r of the offspring is used as a point of family focus in order to avoid focusing on issues that might break the family apart (e.g., strains on the parental marital relationship). 2. Eating disorder families have little conflict resolution skills. 3. Many parents in eating disorder families evidence varying degrees of psychological disturbance. 4. Eating disorder families are perceived by their eating disorder offspring as non-cohesive and non-expressive, as having difficulties with task accomplishment, role performance and communication, and as non-nurturing and isolated. 5. Eating disorder families evidence a higher degree of parental obesity than normal control families. Regarding family factors, several findings have been noted. For example, inconsistency in parental affection and lack of family cohesion have been associated with the development of bulimia, as have been parental attitudes toward weight, diet, fitness, and body image (Scalf-McIver & Thompson, 1989). Also, families that tend to be extremely anxious about weight and derogatory toward people who are overweight often have children with eating disorders (Wold, 1984). In a comprehensive review of the literature, Strober and Humphrey (1987) summarized what they
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Approximate Word count = 9392
Approximate Pages = 38 (250 words per page)

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