T D Wade1, C M Bulik, K S Kendler. 1. School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. tracey.wade@flinders.edu.au
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Previous literature suggests a link between the quality of the parental relationship and disordered eating in offspring. We investigated the relationship between offspring pyschopathology and the parental relationship using a population-based twin registry that contained 766 complete twin pairs. METHOD: We used reports of twin lifetime psychopathology from the twins and quality of parental relationship and parental lifetime psychopathology from both parents. RESULTS: Poorer quality of the marital relationship predicted the presence of subclinical bulimia nervosa (SBN) using both mother's (odds ratio [OR] = 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.71-0.97) and father's (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.62-0.97) reports. It also predicted the presence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and alcohol dependence. SBN was still strongly predicted by the marital relationship when parental psychopathology was included as a covariate. DISCUSSION: These results are supportive of the notion that a conflictual and distant marital relationship can, at least partially, act as an environmental risk factor for SBN. Copyright 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
OBJECTIVE: Previous literature suggests a link between the quality of the parental relationship and disordered eating in offspring. We investigated the relationship between offspring pyschopathology and the parental relationship using a population-based twin registry that contained 766 complete twin pairs. METHOD: We used reports of twin lifetime psychopathology from the twins and quality of parental relationship and parental lifetime psychopathology from both parents. RESULTS: Poorer quality of the marital relationship predicted the presence of subclinical bulimia nervosa (SBN) using both mother's (odds ratio [OR] = 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.71-0.97) and father's (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.62-0.97) reports. It also predicted the presence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and alcohol dependence. SBN was still strongly predicted by the marital relationship when parental psychopathology was included as a covariate. DISCUSSION: These results are supportive of the notion that a conflictual and distant marital relationship can, at least partially, act as an environmental risk factor for SBN. Copyright 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Authors: Jessica L Suisman; S Alexandra Burt; Matt McGue; William G Iacono; Kelly L Klump Journal: Int J Eat Disord Date: 2010-11-09 Impact factor: 4.861