Abstract
The lack of motivation to recover from eating disorders (ED) poses a big problem in light of literature showing the critical role motivation plays in the outcome of ED treatment. Literature exploring the factors contributing to motivation to recover is scarce. The current study aims at exploring the associations between aspects of object relations and quality of relationships with parents to the motivation for recovery in light of research suggesting an influence of these variables in the development of ED. 79 females, visitors of either “pro-anorexia” websites (in which ED are glorified as an alternative life style rather than being acknowledged as mental disorders) or “prorecovery” websites, completed a set of questionnaires online including Eat-26, Anorexia Nervosa Stages of Change Questionnaire, Quality of Relationship Inventory regarding parents and blatt’s Object Relations Inventory. Results show that while the score on EAT-26 was related to both mother and father variables, only the quality of relationship with the father is a significant variable in predicting motivation to recover from ED. Implications for treatment and further research are discussed.
Highlights
Being one of the most deadly mental illnesses, eating disorders, and the recovery from them, have been studied for many years and received much attention in the literature
Based on the literature described here, the purpose of the current study was to assess the contribution of the relationships with parents and object relations to the motivation to recover from eating disorders, an association as of yet not explored, in a sample of females with different levels of disordered eating and different levels of motivation for recovery
Participants were female volunteers, aged 12 to 46 (M = 19.99, STD = 5.83), who were asked to participate in the study anonymously, through the internet and without receiving any reward in return. They were approached by a message posted on websites which are either pro eating disorders oriented or pro-recovery oriented, in order to reach a heterogeneous sample of females in respect to the motivation for recovery variable
Summary
Being one of the most deadly mental illnesses, eating disorders, and the recovery from them, have been studied for many years and received much attention in the literature. Based on Fonagy and Target’s model, Rothschild-Yakar, Levy-Shiff, Fridman-Balaban, Gur and Stein (2010) examined the hypothesis that deficient mentalization abilities and maladaptive relationships with parents may be risk factors in the genesis of eating disorders Their results showed that anorexia nervosa patients had lower mentalization levels. Based on the literature described here, the purpose of the current study was to assess the contribution of the relationships with parents and object relations to the motivation to recover from eating disorders, an association as of yet not explored, in a sample of females with different levels of disordered eating and different levels of motivation for recovery. It was hypothesized that a closer, conflict free and supporting relationship, as well as more mature and positive object relations would be associated with a higher motivation to recover
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