Comparison of Bulimic-Anorexic and Nondistressed Families Using Structural Analysis of Social Behavior

Abstract

This study compared family processes in 16 bulimic-anorexic and 24 nondistressed family triads, including fathers, mothers, and teenage daughters. Using Benjamin's Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB), family members rated their interrelationships and were observed during a family discussion of daughter's separation from her parents. As expected, the results revealed that families of bulimic-anorexics were more Belittling and Appeasing, and Ignoring and Walling Off and were less Helping and Trusting, and Nurturing and Approaching than were their nondisturbed counterparts. In addition, results from the observational data, including sequential analyses, showed that parents of anorexics were more double-binding toward their daughters by juxtaposing the opposite messages of taking control and giving them autonomy. This conflict was complemented by the bulimic-anorexics themselves who were ambivalent about resentfully submitting and asserting themselves with their parents. These results were interpreted in relation to the individuation hypothesis of anorexia nervosa and its variants.