hy from one another. (2) That tend to purge their aggression and frustration on one another without structure, focus, or resolution. (3) Where parents show a tendency toward psychopathology. (4) That tend to be understructured and isolated from the community. (5) That engage in a high level of double-bind communication. (6) Whose home environments are generally hostile, conflictive, depriving, and disorganized.
(7) Where parents are often impulsive and easily excitable.
(8) Where parents often have some form of eating disorder themselves.
Based on the review of the research, Strober and Humphrey (1987) concluded that:
The family environment...appears to hamper the development of a stable identity, of autonomy, and of self-efficacy through a cluster of disturbed patterns of relating and interacting that are characterized by enmeshment, poor conflict resolution, emotional over-involvement or detachment, and a lack of affection and empathy (pp. 657-658).
The second area of the eating disorder literature consists of studies that focus on issues of control and power. In this regard, Van den Broucke and Vandereycken (1989) found no evidence of unequal power distribution in the marital relationships of eating disorder clients. However, McKenna (1989) and Yeary and Heck (1989) found that these clients have a high need for control.
Regarding power/control issues, Rossiter, Wilson and Goldstein (1989) noted that eating disorders can be characterized as running along a continuum:
...with increasing restraint leading to increasing hunger and difficulty with controlling impulses to eat in disinhibiting situations (Rossiter, Wilson & Goldstein, 1989, p.465).
Similarly, Kiemle, Slade and Dewey (1988) found that the greater the dissatisfaction with their weight, the more eating disorder clients experience a need to be in control as well as the less their actual feelings of control.
Riebel (1985) explained eating di...