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Marital intimacy in patients with an eating disorder: A controlled self‐report study
Author(s) -
Broucke Stephan,
Vandereycken Walter,
Vertommen Hans
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
british journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0144-6657
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1995.tb01437.x
Subject(s) - psychology , anorexia nervosa , openness to experience , bulimia nervosa , eating disorder inventory , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , eating disorders , social psychology
The clinical literature on married patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa suggests a lack of intimacy in these couples. This assumption was tested by comparing the scores on the Marital Intimacy Questionnaire of 21 eating‐disordered (ED) couples with those of two matched control groups of 21 maritally distressed (MD) and 21 non‐distressed (ND) couples. The overall level of intimacy attained by ED couples is lower than that of ND couples but higher than that of MD couples. Whereas this quantitative difference may reflect the couples' differences in marital satisfaction (as assessed by the Maudsley Marital Questionnaire), an additional qualitative discrimination can be made between ED couples and the two control groups on account of the former group's relatively low level of openness and high level of intimacy problems.