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Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescence: Parental Narratives Explore Causes and Responsibilities

Background: 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 o...

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Autores principales: Carpinelli, Luna, Watzlawik, Meike
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10001440/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36901086
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054075
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author Carpinelli, Luna
Watzlawik, Meike
author_facet Carpinelli, Luna
Watzlawik, Meike
author_sort Carpinelli, Luna
collection PubMed
description Background: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.
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spelling pubmed-100014402023-03-11 Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescence: Parental Narratives Explore Causes and Responsibilities Carpinelli, Luna Watzlawik, Meike Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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. MDPI 2023-02-24 /pmc/articles/PMC10001440/ /pubmed/36901086 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054075 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Carpinelli, Luna
Watzlawik, Meike
Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescence: Parental Narratives Explore Causes and Responsibilities
title Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescence: Parental Narratives Explore Causes and Responsibilities
title_full Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescence: Parental Narratives Explore Causes and Responsibilities
title_fullStr Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescence: Parental Narratives Explore Causes and Responsibilities
title_full_unstemmed Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescence: Parental Narratives Explore Causes and Responsibilities
title_short Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescence: Parental Narratives Explore Causes and Responsibilities
title_sort anorexia nervosa in adolescence: parental narratives explore causes and responsibilities
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10001440/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36901086
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054075
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