Assessing the relationship between parents' object relations and their daughters' eating disturbances

AbstractSeveral predicted relationships between parents' object relations and eating behaviors and their daughters' levels of eating disturbance were tested. Eating behaviors and attitudes and degree of psychological separation from parents were assessed among 123 college women. Subsequently, their mothers' and fathers' object relations, attitudes toward women and attractiveness, and own eating attitudes and behaviors were examined. Multiple regression analyses indicated that disturbances in mothers' object relations, specifically exhibiting more insecurity in attachment to others, were related to bulimic tendencies in their daughters. Also, daughters' difficulties separating psychologically from mothers were related to a range of daughers' eating disturbances. However, analyses found no support for specific characteristics of fathers, such as emotional alienation, being related to eating disturbances in their daughters. The findings partially support theory with regard to the mother-daughter relationship but challenge existing conceptualizations of fathers of eating-disordered women.