Objective: The aims of this study were to analyse the influence of family concern about appearance on self-concept deficits in patients under treatment for eating disorders, and to identify predictors of eating attitudes and behaviours in control and clinical groups.
Method: The participants were 123 women with diagnoses of DSM-IV-TR eating disorders and 124 female university students. All completed the eating attitudes test (EAT-40), the body dissatisfaction of the eating disorders inventory (EDI-BD), the Rosenberg self-esteem (RSE), the fear of negative evaluation (FNE) and the family concern about appearance scale (FCAS). Patients were administered with these instruments at admission and after 6 and 12 months of treatment.
Results: ANOVAs indicated that family concern about appearance had no influence on the evolution of self-concept deficits during treatment. Multiple regression analyses showed that the best predictor of eating attitudes in controls was FCAS score, while among patients the best predictor of how the disorder will evolve after 12 months of treatment was EAT-40 at admission.
Conclusion: Families may transmit eating concerns, but this is not enough for the emergence of an eating disorder.
2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association