The aim of the present study was to investigate the
characteristics and interaction patterns in the families of
adolescent eating—disordered patients. Four groups of female
adolescents and their mothers (restrictive anorexic, bulimic
type, psychiatric control, and nonpsychiatric control) were
assessed on a number of self-report instruments: The Family
Environment Scale, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Work and Family
Orientation Questionnaire, Sex Role Ideology Scale, Food
Fitness and Looks Questionnaire, and Body Esteem Scale.
Support was found for the hypothesis that the families of
bulimic type and psychiatric control subjects are
characterized as more dysfunctional than the families of
restrictive anorexic and nonpsychiatric control subjects. In
particular, restrictive anorexic and nonpsychiatric control
mothers and daughters characterized their families as more
cohesive than did bulimic type and psychiatric control mothers
and daughters. No differences were found amongst the four
groups on expressiveness, conflict, independence,
organization, control, or marital adjustment. These family
interaction data were found to vary with the adolescent’s
level of depression, general psychiatric distress, and
impulsivity, but only for daughters, not for mothers. Little
support was found for the hypothesis that restrictive anorexic
and bulimic type mothers and daughters are characterized as
higher in achievement orientation, traditional sex role
ideology, and weight and appearance orientation than psychiatric control mothers and daughters. There were no
group differences with respect to individual or family
achievement orientation; however, restrictive anorexic and
nonpsychiatric control daughters did have higher school grades
than psychiatric control daughters. No differences in sex
role ideology were found amongst the groups. Restrictive
anorexic and bulimic type daughters, but not mothers, ascribed
greater importance to weight and had more negative attitudes
toward their own weight than psychiatric and nonpsychiatric
control daughters. No group differences were found for
mothers or daughters with respect to attitude toward one’s own
attractiveness or importance ascribed to appearance or
fitness. Potential explanations for lack of congruence with
the theoretical literature are advanced, and the possible
specificity of family pseudocohesiveness and problem denial to
eating disorders is discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/3206 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Taylor, Lori Anne |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 2554279 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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