Development and validation of the Parental Intrusiveness Rating Scale among bulimic and comparison women.
OBJECTIVE
Based on hypotheses generated during clinical interviews with 80 women with a lifetime history of bulimia nervosa (BN), we designed an instrument for assessing the extent to which women with BN report parental intrusiveness and breakdown of appropriate role boundaries during their adolescent development.


METHODS
Through an iterative process of item generation and scale administration, the Parental Intrusiveness Rating Scale (PIRS), consisting of 20 maternal items and 20 paternal items, was developed. Maternal subscales include Invasion of Privacy, Jealousy and Competition, and Overconcern with the Daughter's Eating, Weight, and Shape. Paternal subscales include Invasion of Privacy, Seductiveness, and Overconcern with the Daughter's Eating, Weight, and Shape. We validated the instrument using a subset of the above BN and comparison women (ns = 55 and 33, respectively), as well as an independent sample of women with BN and college comparison subjects (ns = 31 and 540, respectively).


RESULTS
Parental intrusiveness scores were significantly positively correlated with disturbed relationships in the family of origin of our initial cohort. Reliability analyses, both test-retest and item-scale correlations, revealed adequate to strong statistical associations in the combined sample.


CONCLUSIONS
The PIRS promises to enrich our understanding of problematic parental behaviors among women who develop BN and allows us to broaden the conceptualization of familial risk factors for this disorder.
Rorty
M
M
Private Practice, Pasadena, California.
Yager
J
J
Buckwalter
J G
JG
Rossotto
E
E
Guthrie
D
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000328:Adult; D002032:Bulimia / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity