Family Climate and Recovery in Adolescent Onset Eating Disorders: A Prospective Study

Abstract

Self-reported family climate was associated with recovery. Changes in eating disorder symptoms preceded changes in family climate.

‘I Know I Can Help You’: Parental Self‐efficacy Predicts Adolescent Outcomes in Family‐based Therapy for Eating Disorders

“…This result may reflect what is commonly seen in therapy and reported in the literature, where family climate is related to the impact of the illness and improves following changes in ED symptoms (Nilsson, Engström, & Hägglöf, 2012;Whitney & Eisler, 2005). Parents also experienced significant benefit from their involvement in treatment.…”

“…In terms of parent-specific effects, it was notable that fathers' increases in self-efficacy earlier in treatment (T0-T1) predicted improvements for adolescents, whereas mothers' increase from T0 to T2 was predictive of their adolescents' improvement. This result may reflect what is commonly seen in therapy and reported in the literature, where family climate is related to the impact of the illness and improves following changes in ED symptoms (Nilsson, Engström, & Hägglöf, 2012;Whitney & Eisler, 2005). For example, according to Whitney and Eisler (2005), when families initially present for service, the ED has already begun to reorganize family patterns; therefore, an initially less close relationship with a father can be amplified to the point where they are on the periphery.…”

Family Functioning and Relationship Quality for Adolescents in Family‐based Treatment with Severe Anorexia Nervosa Compared with Non‐clinical Adolescents

“…Anorexia nervosa (AN) commonly develops in adolescence, impacting not only the young person's physical and psychological well‐being but also the family and psychosocial development during a transformational life cycle period (Ruuska, Koivisto, Rantanen, & Kaltiala‐Heino, ; Steiner et al, ; Striegel‐Moore, Seeley, & Lewinsohn, ; Wentz, Gillberg, Anckarsater, Gillberg, & Rastam, ; Whitney & Eisler, ). Research of adolescents with AN has generally found higher impairment in family relationships and functioning compared with non‐clinical populations (Emanuelli et al, ; Laghi et al, ; McDermott, Batik, Roberts, & Gibbon, ; Nilsson, Engstrom, & Hagglof, ). Specific areas of impairment commonly reported by parents or adolescents in AN studies include difficulty maintaining family rules and clear roles, emotional over‐involvement, communication difficulties, lower levels of cohesion and dissatisfaction with family life (Ciao, Accurso, Fitzsimmons‐Craft, Lock, & Le Grange, ; Cook‐Darzens, Doyen, Falissard, & Mouren, ; Emanuelli et al, ; Vidovic, Juresa, Begovac, Mahnik, & Tocilj, ).…”

Family therapy for adolescent anorexia nervosa

“…Earlier models of family therapy [14,15] assumed that the aim of treatment was to modify dysfunctional transactional family patterns, although a familial cause of eating disorders is not supported by empirical evidence [4,16]. In contrast, FT-AN starts from the assumption that families are the best source of the skills required to help the patient recover [17].…”

“…Anorexia nervosa can have serious and life-threatening medical complications, has a high mortality rate of 5% per decennium [3] and has significant social and relational implications for the individual and the family [4][5][6]. Family therapy in various forms has been used in the treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa for over 40 years.…”