The Influence of Family Functioning on Eating Disorders Essay -- Relat

The Influence of Family Functioning on Eating Disorders Understanding the etiology of an eating disorder is perhaps the most complicated routine surrounding the disease, as teasing apart cause and consequence can be extremely difficult. This problem becomes immediately apparent when examining family actors associated with eating disorders. Research oer the past decade has focused largely on identifying family factors that potentially contribute to the development of an eating disorder in an individual, and further refining these characteristics into prototypes for the anorexic family or the bulimic family. Identifying a pattern of specific family risk factors would be an extremely useful tool in recognizing those vulnerable for developing an eating disorder. While the look for has been unable to paint an entirely complete picture of family characteristics, certain traits surface as typical to the eating disordered family. Unfortunately, much of the existing litera ture on family factors and eating disorders relies upon correlational data, as controllight-emitting diode studies are difficult to conduct within a family setting. Caution must therefore be applied to such findings, as one cannot assume causality based on strictly correlational studies alone, it cannot be determined whether the family environment caused the eating disorder, or whether the eating disorder led to family dysfunction. Nevertheless, it remains useful to examine any significant factors that emerge from the literature in order to increase understanding about each potential factor influencing the development of eating disorders. Although they both fall into the common continuum of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa (restricting subt... ...(1986). Bulimia assessment of eating,Psychological adjustment, and familial characteristics. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 5(5), 865-878. Scalf-McIver, L. & Thompson, J.K. (1989). Family correlates of bulim ic characteristics in college females. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45(3), 467-472. Stern, S.L., Dixon, K.L., Jones, D., Lake, M., Nemzer, E., & Sansone, R. (1989). FamilyEnvironment in anorexia and bulimia. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 8(1), 25-31. Thienemann, M. & Steiner, H. (1993). Family environment of eating disordered and depressed adolescents. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 14(1), 43 48. Walsh, B.T. & Garner, D.M. (1997). Diagnostic issues. In D.M. Garner & P.E.Garfinkel (Eds.), Handbook for the Treatment of Eating Disorders (pp. 25-33). New York The Guilford Press.