Family Perception of Interpersonal Behavior as a Predictor in Eating Disorders: A Prospective, Six-Year Followup Study

• Published in: Family process Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 359 - 374
• Main Authors: Herzog, Wolfgang, Kronmüller, Klaus-Thomas, Hartmann, Mechthild, Bergmann, Günther, Kröger, Friedebert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-09-2000; Blackwell
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Cross-sectional studies; Eating behavior disorders; Eating disorders; Families & family life; Family - psychology; Family environment. Family history; Family relationships; Feeding and Eating Disorders - epidemiology; Feeding and Eating Disorders - etiology; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Followup studies; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Longitudinal studies; Male; Medical prognosis; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Patients; Perceptions; Prognosis; Prospective Studies; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Time Factors; Human; Prediction; Anorexia nervosa; Eating disorder; Parent child relation; Bulimia; Symptomatology; Follow up study; Social interaction; Adolescent; Young adult; Evolution; Familial relation
• ISSN: 0014-7370; 1545-5300
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1545-5300.2000.39307.x

This study assessed family perception patterns of interpersonal behavior in families with a daughter diagnosed with an eating disorder 6 years after treatment that used a prospective design. Family perception patterns of patients found to have a poor outcome at followup (n = 15) were compared with patients with a good outcome (n =23), as well as a control group (n =36). Using the system of multiple level observation of groups (SYMLOG), all 238 family members evaluated themselves and each other. The index patients with a poor outcome perceived themselves as friendlier and more positive than they were perceived by their families. In comparison to parents of daughters with a good outcome and the control group, parents of daughters in the poor outcome group perceived themselves to be less friendly than their partners perceived them to be. A rigid polarization of the perception of the index patient by family members and a discrepancy in this perception between the index patient and the rest of the family were found to be indicative of a poor prognosis. Implications for treatment based on family perception patterns of interpersonal behavior are discussed.