Anorexia nervosa and family relationships: Perceived family functioning, coping strategies, beliefs, and attachment to parents and peers

This ex post facto study explored the differences in perceived family characteristics between a group of 34 female patients with anorexia nervosa and 34 females without eating pathology. All participants filled out the following self-report scales: FACES II, F-COPES, IPPA and the Family Beliefs Questionnaire. The results showed that, in contrast with participants without pathology, patients perceived their families as less cohesive and less capable of redefining stressful events in order to make them more manageable. However, they perceived their families as being more able to acquire and accept help, and presented more family beliefs related to a sense of an individual responsibility/self-blaming. In addition, patients seemed to trust less their mothers and peers and to communicate less with their peers, and to show more detachment to mothers, fathers, and peers. Of all studied variables, detachment from friends and mother, as well as perceived higher family capacity to seek out community resources and accept help were the most important variables to the discrimination between groups.