title: [Subjective family image in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in adolescence: a controlled study].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The family environments of patients with eating disorders have been studied extensively in recent decades. The "Subjective Family Image Test" is an instrument developed especially to measure differential perceptions by family members. Assessments of subjective family image in families of adolescents by means of this test have been carried out in only a few samples.
  
  
  METHODS
  We aimed first to investigate subjective perceptions by adolescents of their family relations in a larger clinical sample of female adolescents (n = 118) suffering from anorexia nervosa of either subtype or from bulimia nervosa and to compare these perceptions with those of healthy controls (n = 96). Second we investigated intra-familial differences in perception.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The main findings were that bulimia nervosa patients perceived lower individual autonomy and lower emotional connectedness than all other groups, the adolescents with bulimia perceived significantly lower autonomy and emotional connectedness within the family than their fathers, and the restrictive anorexia nervosa patients perceived higher connectedness than their fathers. The relevance of these findings for understanding family dynamics are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinik für Neuropsychiatrie des Kindes und Jugendalters, Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien. Andreas.Karwautz@univie.ac.at
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karwautz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haidvogl
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nobis
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wöber-Bingöl
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Friedrich
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D002032:Bulimia / Q000523:psychology*; D005195:Family Relations; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007207:Individuation; D007389:Internal-External Control; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012380:Role; D012659:Semantic Differential; D012931:Social Environment