Schema and parental bonding in overweight and nonoverweight female adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether family functioning and cognitions in a group of overweight female adolescents differ significantly from those in a group of normal weight female adolescents.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study.


METHODS
In all, 23 overweight female adolescents (mean age: 17.6 y, mean body mass index (BMI: 27.8 kg/m2), and 23 normal weight female adolescents (mean age: 17.7 y, mean BMI: 20.2 kg/m2).


METHODS
The following self-report measures were completed: the Parental Bonding Inventory, the Young Schema Questionnaire-short version, the Eating Attitudes Test, the Beck Depression Inventory and the Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire.


RESULTS
Overweight female adolescents reported more negative self-beliefs and greater belief in schema relating to emotional deprivation, fears of abandonment, subjugation and insufficient self-control. They also perceived their fathers as being significantly more overprotective and significantly less caring. Within this group perceived level of maternal care correlated negatively with negative self-beliefs and schema.


CONCLUSIONS
Overweight female adolescents show some of the cognitive features associated with the development of an eating disorder. However, positive parent-child relationships may serve to protect overweight adolescents from developing clinical eating disorders and from psychological distress later in life.
Turner
H M
HM
School of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK. hmt@soton.ac.uk
Rose
K S
KS
Cooper
M J
MJ
D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005190:Family; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010332:Paternal Behavior; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012649:Self Concept