title: The parental bonding in families of adolescents with anorexia: attachment representations between parents and offspring.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The attachment theory is widely used in order to explain anorexia nervosa origin, course and treatment response. Nevertheless, very little literature specifically investigated parental bonding in adolescents with anorexia, as well as the parents' own bonding and intergenerational transmission within the family.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to identify any specific pattern of parental bonding in families of adolescents newly diagnosed with restricting-type anorexia, comparing them to the families of the control group.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 168 participants, adolescents and parents (78 belonging to the anorexia group and 90 to the control one), rated the perceived parental styles on the parental bonding instrument. The latent class analysis allowed the exploration of a maternal bonding latent variable and a paternal one.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The main findings showed that a careless and overcontrolling parental style was recalled by the patients' parents, and in particular by the fathers. As far as the adolescents' responses were concerned, patients with anorexia did not seem to express differently their parental bonding perception from participants of the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clinical implications driven from the results suggest that a therapeutic intervention working on how the parents' own attachment representations influence current relationships may help to modify the actual family functioning and thus the outcome of patients with anorexia.
authors.affiliation: Interdepartmental Center for Family Research, Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education, and Applied Psychology, Section of Applied Psychology, University of Padova, Padova.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Balottin
authors.affiliation: Interdepartmental Center for Family Research, Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education, and Applied Psychology, Section of Applied Psychology, University of Padova, Padova.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mannarini
authors.affiliation: Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, C Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia.
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.affiliation: Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Insubria, Varese.
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.affiliation: Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, C Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia; Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Umberto
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Balottin
keywords: adolescence; care and overprotection; inter-generational transmission; latent class analysis; parental bonding instrument; restricting-type anorexia nervosa