A systematic review of eating disorders and family functioning

Rienecke, R. D., Trotter, X. and Jenkins, P. E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1673-2903 (2024) A systematic review of eating disorders and family functioning. Clinical Psychology Review, 112. 102462. ISSN 1873-7811 doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2024.102462

Abstract/Summary

The purpose of the current review was to address four questions: 1) Are there differences in family functioning or family environment among patients with different eating disorder (ED) diagnoses? 2) Are there differences in the perception of family functioning or family environment among different family members? 3) Is family functioning or family environment related to ED symptomatology? 4) Does family functioning or family environment change as a result of ED treatment? and 4a) If so, does this impact ED treatment outcome? Although most studies found no differences among ED diagnostic groups, those that did generally found worse family functioning among those with binge/purge symptoms than among those with the restricting subtype of anorexia nervosa. Differences in perceptions of family functioning among family members were found, with patients generally reporting worse functioning than their parents. Worse family functioning was generally found to be related to worse ED symptoms. The variety of treatment approaches and different assessments of outcome made it somewhat unclear whether family functioning consistently improves with ED treatment. More research is needed on family functioning and EDs, particularly in understudied groups such as males, and those with ED diagnoses other than anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/116938
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
Publisher	Elsevier
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