Subjective family image in adolescents with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa

Objectives: The family environment of patients with eating disorders have been studied extensively in recent decades. The "Subjective Family Image Test" is an instrument developed especially to measure differential perceptions by family members. Assessments of subjective family image in families of adolescents by means of this test have been carried out in only a few samples. Methods: We aimed first to investigate subjective perceptions by adolescents of their family relations in a larger clinical sample of female adolescents (n = 118) suffering from anorexia nervosa of either subtype from bulimia nervosa and to compare these perceptions with those of healthy controls (n = 96). Second we investigated intra-familial differences in perception. Results: The main findings were that bulimia nervosa patients perceived lower individual autonomy and lower emotional connetedness than all other groups, the adolescents with bulimia perceived significantly lower autonomy and emotional connectedness within the family than their family their fathers. The relevance of these findings for understanding family dynamics are discussed.