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Association of family environment and personality disturbances in bulimia nervosa
Author(s) -
Head Susan B.,
Williamson Donald A
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/1098-108x(199011)9:6<667::aid-eat2260090609>3.0.co;2-1
Subject(s) - bulimia nervosa , psychology , family environment scale , perfectionism (psychology) , extraversion and introversion , context (archaeology) , clinical psychology , personality , neuroticism , eating disorders , millon clinical multiaxial inventory , eating disorder inventory , psychopathology , psychiatry , big five personality traits , personality disorders , social psychology , paleontology , biology
This study investigated the association between family environmental characteristics and the psychological characteristics of bulimia nervosa. Fifty‐eight subjects meeting DSM III‐R criteria for bulimia nervosa comprised the subject pool for this study. Subjects were administered the Family Environment Scale (FES) to assess family environmental variables, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) to assess personality characteristics, and the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) to assess eating disorder symptomatology. A canonical correlation based on factor analyses of the FES, MCMI, and EDI was used to determine associations between family environmental characteristics and personalityleating disorder characteristics. This analysis showed that a restrictive and conflictual family environment high in parental control was associated with neuroticism and introversion. A second canonical correlation showed an association between a stimulating, achievement‐oriented family environment and extroversion, paranoid thinking and perfectionism. Implications of these findings were discussed in the context of previous research related to family background and psychopathology associated with bulimia nervosa.