Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry, Baronissi Campus, University of Salerno, 84081 Baronissi, Italy.
Department of Development, Education and Culture, Faculty of Psychology, Campus Tempelhof, Sigmund Freud University Berlin, 12101 Berlin, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 24;20(5):4075. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20054075.
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious mental disorder with a multifactorial etiopathogenesis, adolescent girls being especially vulnerable. Parents can be a resource and occasionally a burden when their children suffer from AN; thus, parents play a key role in recovery. This study focused on parental illness theories of AN and how parents negotiate their responsibilities.
To gain insights into this dynamic, 14 parents (11 mothers, 3 fathers) of adolescent girls were interviewed. Qualitative content analysis was used to provide an overview of the parents' assumed causes for their children's AN. We also looked for systematic differences in the assumed causes among different groups of parents (e.g., high versus low self-efficacy). A microgenetic positioning analysis of two mother-father dyads provided further insight into how they viewed the development of AN in their daughters.
The analysis stressed the overall helplessness of parents and their strong need to understand what was going on. Parents differed in stressing internal and external causes, which influenced whether they felt responsible and how much they felt in control and able to help.
Analysing the variability and dynamics shown can support therapists, especially those working systemically to change the narratives within families for better therapy compliance and outcomes.
神经性厌食症（AN）是一种具有多因素病因的严重精神障碍，青少年女孩尤其容易受到影响。当孩子患有 AN 时，父母可能是一种资源，也可能是一种负担；因此，父母在康复过程中起着关键作用。本研究关注的是 AN 的父母疾病理论以及父母如何协商自己的责任。
为了深入了解这一动态，我们对 14 名青少年女孩的父母（11 名母亲，3 名父亲）进行了访谈。采用定性内容分析，对父母对孩子 AN 的假设原因进行了概述。我们还寻找了不同群体的父母（例如，自我效能感高与低的父母）之间假设原因的系统差异。对两个母子二人组的微观遗传定位分析提供了更多关于他们如何看待女儿 AN 发展的见解。
分析强调了父母的整体无助感以及他们强烈了解正在发生的事情的需求。父母在强调内在和外在原因方面存在差异，这影响了他们是否感到有责任，以及他们感到控制和帮助的程度。
分析所表现出的可变性和动态性可以为治疗师提供支持，特别是那些以系统方式工作的治疗师，以改变家庭内部的叙述，从而提高治疗依从性和治疗效果。
