Parents of bulimic women

Abstract

The mothers and fathers of six bulimic and six nonbulimic college women were given structured interviews, both independently and jointly, in which they were asked about their marriages, spouses, and relationships with their children. The interviews were audiotaped; typed transcripts were prepared. Two judges, who were blind to the purpose of the study and unaware of the group placement of the subjects, independently rated each couple on 44 Likert scales. On the basis of these data, bulimic mothers were judged to be more domineering and controlling than their nonbulimic counterparts; they were also seen as holding higher expectations for their daughters. Fathers of bulimic women were seen as close to their daughters during the early childhood years, but distant during adolescence; a similar deterioration of the father/daughter relationship was not observed in the control group. The judges rated the parents of bulimic women as more demanding and more inclined to compare siblings openly; they also detected higher levels of parent/daughter stress. The findings support several currently held clinical notions about the parental antecedents of bulimia.

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