The purpose of this study is to understand how individual characteristics and traits in high ability women with eating disorders interact with contextual factors such as the family, social context and culture. The participants in the study are four high ability women. Three at the time of data collection, have been suffering from an eating disorder and one participant has been in recovery for a number of years. The qualitative design of the study allows for the emergence of common themes among the participants. Through in-depth interviews, experience sampling methodology and artifacts an understanding emerges of the individual and contextual factors that each perceived was associated with the development of her eating disorder. Results of the study indicate that high ability women possess the following individual factors that contribute to the development of their eating disorder: caring and nurturing others but not themselves, hypersensitivity, over-excitability, perfectionism, harm avoidance, reward dependence, shame, guilt and a sense of ineffectiveness and the lack of an identity. The most significant finding of the study is that individual factors in all the women were discordant with the family context in which they were raised. Specifically, the family features of emotional inexpression, a high achievement orientation, an enmeshed style of parenting and a chaotic environment. The poorness of fit between each woman and her family was associated with the development of her eating disorder. Finally what emerged from the present study was that the reciprocal interaction among individual and contextual factors explained the development of each woman's eating disorder. The concluding chapters present and discuss the common themes that emerged regarding the factors which interacted in each woman's life, leading her to turn to an eating disorder in order to cope. Recommendations are made to educators, psychologists and parents to work to create a goodness of fit in the lives of all women, in particular those with high abilities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/9392 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Cuffaro, Maria Assunta. |
| Contributors | Leroux, Janice A., |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 325 p. |
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