The parents' relationship and the child's illness in anorexia nervosa.

Abstract

The authors examine the impact on the preanorexic child of the parents' relationship with one another, particularly the models they present of mature male/female relationships. The authors suggest that patterns of maternal perfectionism and self-sacrifice combined with paternal entitlement makes sexual maturity particularly threatening for female children in these families, and may partially explain the greater incidence of anorexia nervosa in women, and its explosive incidence in adolescence.