Potterton Rachel, Brown Gary, Schmidt Ulrike
Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK.
Centre for Research in Eating and Weight Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, SE5 8AF, UK.
J Eat Disord. 2025 May 12;13(1):80. doi: 10.1186/s40337-025-01260-8.
Around half of all eating disorder cases start during emerging adulthood (i.e., 18-25 years of age). This is an important time of change in interpersonal relationships, marked by individuation from the family of origin. Interpersonal relationships have long featured in theories of eating disorder maintenance and recovery. Increased understanding of the interplay between eating disorders and changes in the interpersonal domain may be key to improving the efficacy of existing treatments and developing novel interventions for this population group.
This study aimed to explore experiences of support from family and friends amongst emerging adults with anorexia nervosa.
A convenience sample of emerging adults who had received specialist treatment for anorexia nervosa in the United Kingdom (N = 10) was recruited via advertisements on social media. Semi-structured interviews were conducted focusing on experiences of support from family and friends during their eating disorder. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
Five key themes in participants' experiences were identified: (i) feeling isolated and lacking close friends; (ii) resisting involvement of family due to perceiving them as part of the problem; (iii) feeling family and friends' feelings; (iv) desiring flexible boundaries, and (v) feeling ambivalent towards family and friends' lived experience.
Findings suggest a complex entanglement of development of and recovery from AN with the process of individuating from parents during emerging adulthood. Clinicians may find benefit in helping emerging adults to develop their independence and supporting parents to adopt helpful emotional and behavioural postures that tackle the AN maintenance cycle, for example developing parental emotion regulation skills and supporting parents to facilitate age-appropriate levels of independence and responsibility.
大约一半的饮食失调病例始于成年早期（即18 - 25岁）。这是人际关系发生重要变化的时期，其特征是与原生家庭分离。人际关系长期以来一直是饮食失调维持和康复理论的重要内容。增进对饮食失调与人际领域变化之间相互作用的理解，可能是提高现有治疗效果以及为这一人群开发新干预措施的关键。
本研究旨在探讨患有神经性厌食症的成年早期人群从家人和朋友那里获得支持的经历。
通过在社交媒体上发布广告，招募了在英国接受过神经性厌食症专科治疗的成年早期便利样本（N = 10）。进行了半结构化访谈，重点关注他们在饮食失调期间从家人和朋友那里获得支持的经历。使用解释现象学分析对数据进行分析。
确定了参与者经历中的五个关键主题：（i）感到孤立且缺乏亲密朋友；（ii）由于认为家人是问题的一部分而拒绝家人的参与；（iii）感受家人和朋友的感受；（iv）渴望灵活的界限，以及（v）对家人和朋友的生活经历感到矛盾。
研究结果表明，在成年早期，神经性厌食症的发展和康复过程与从父母那里实现个体化的过程复杂地交织在一起。临床医生可能会发现，帮助成年早期人群培养独立性，并支持父母采取有助于应对神经性厌食症维持循环的情感和行为姿态，例如培养父母的情绪调节技能，并支持父母促进适合其年龄的独立和责任感水平，是有益的。
