The dynamic relationship of parental personality traits with the personality and psychopathology traits of anorectic and bulimic daughters

Abstract

Objective: Parenting and family dynamics influence the emergence, development, and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs). Although family interventions are relevant for therapeutic programs, knowledge of the relationship between parental personality traits and the eating psychopathology of daughters is scarce. This study explored the personality and psychopathology of women with EDs and correlated them with parental personality traits.

Method: The personality and eating psychopathology traits of 38 restricter anorectics, 30 bingeing/purging anorectics, 37 bulimics, and their parents' personality traits (87 fathers and 97 mothers) were measured with the Temperament and Character Inventory, the Clinical Global Impression Scale, the Eating Disorders Inventory-2, and the Beck Depression Inventory. The results were compared with matched controls (54 women, 50 fathers, 54 mothers). Personality and psychopathology were correlated with multiple regression.

Results: Women with ED displayed high harm avoidance and low self-directedness, whereas restricter anorectic women had high persistence. Low persistence was common in fathers of daughters across all EDs. Fathers of restricter anorectics were highly harm avoidant. Fathers of both anorectic subtypes and mothers of bulimic women displayed low self-directedness. Parental personality traits were linearly correlated with their daughter's personality and psychopathology, but the correlation differed among EDs.

Conclusion: Parents of eating-disordered participants displayed personality characteristics that differed from controls and, among ED subgroups, these differences were related to their daughter's personality and psychopathology. The linear correlation did not fully explain the relationship of the parental personality traits to the presence of their daughter's ED, suggesting that a more complex personality-based family dynamic is involved. A Temperament and Character Inventory profile of the entire family may be used in the planning of family treatment.