Murray Matthew F, Kandel Johanna S, Rifkin Rachel, Hendelman Joann, Tsen Jonathan, Haedt-Matt Alissa A
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
National Alliance for Eating Disorders, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
Eat Disord. 2025 Apr 17:1-17. doi: 10.1080/10640266.2025.2489864.
Eating disorder (ED) caregivers endorse substantial caregiver strain and psychological distress, and without adequate support may struggle to help their loves ones in adaptive ways. Caregiver interventions can be time-intensive and costly, potentially compounding strain, and thus there is need to examine alternative resources such as support groups. Data from 181 participants who attended virtual, clinician-moderated ED caregiver support groups were used to examine associations between past-month group attendance and participation frequency, psychological distress, caregiver strain, and caregiving skill. Adjusting for duration of support group attendance, Pearson partial correlations indicated that attendance frequency was positively related to several aspects of adaptive caregiving while verbal and chat participation frequency were positively related to within-group emotional support, social companionship (i.e. social cohesion), and informational support. Findings suggest that ED caregiver support groups have potential to support caregiver efficacy and provide access to social support, which could mitigate caregiver strain and thus also improve the wellbeing of people with EDs. However, results are preliminary and not an indication that ED caregiver support groups produce changes in wellbeing. Rather, results provide important foundational information that should be used to inform prospective examination of caregiver distress and skill outcomes with support group utilization.
饮食失调（ED）患者的照料者承受着巨大的照料压力和心理困扰，若得不到足够支持，可能难以以适应性方式帮助他们所爱的人。照料者干预可能耗时且成本高昂，这可能会加剧压力，因此有必要研究其他资源，如支持小组。来自181名参加由临床医生主持的虚拟ED照料者支持小组的参与者的数据，用于检验过去一个月内小组出席情况、参与频率、心理困扰、照料者压力和照料技能之间的关联。在调整支持小组出席时长后，皮尔逊偏相关分析表明，出席频率与适应性照料的多个方面呈正相关，而言语和聊天参与频率与小组内的情感支持、社交陪伴（即社会凝聚力）和信息支持呈正相关。研究结果表明，ED照料者支持小组有潜力支持照料者的效能，并提供获得社会支持的途径，这可以减轻照料者的压力，从而也改善ED患者的幸福感。然而，结果是初步的，并不表明ED照料者支持小组会使幸福感发生变化。相反，研究结果提供了重要的基础信息，应用于为支持小组利用对照料者困扰和技能结果的前瞻性研究提供参考。
