Family experiences as moderators of the relationship between eating symptoms and personality disturbance

Abstract

A questionnaire study with 243 female undergraduates assessed whether late adolescent females' experiences of autonomy and perceptions of family conflict would moderate the relationship between eating symptoms and personality disturbances associated with severe eating disorders. Univariate correlations between eating symptoms, on the one hand, and perceived family conflict and reports of individuation and mutuality in the adolescent/parent relationship, on the other hand, were relatively weak and for the most part insignificant. However, these data supported a "moderating hypothesis" in that eating symptoms were more strongly related to interoceptive confusion and maturity fears among participants describing less individuated relationships with their parents and reporting unusually low levels of family conflict.