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Parental-Bonding and Alexithymia in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa, Their Parents, and Siblings

Anorexia nervosa (AN) patients and their family-members share alexithymia, anxiety, depression, and other psychological symptoms, in the context of altered attachment. These domains have been individually studied in the context of eating disorders; few attempts have been made to study their interact...

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Autores principales: Mannarini, Stefania, Kleinbub, Johann Roland
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9137782/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35621420
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs12050123
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author Mannarini, Stefania
Kleinbub, Johann Roland
author_facet Mannarini, Stefania
Kleinbub, Johann Roland
author_sort Mannarini, Stefania
collection PubMed
description Anorexia nervosa (AN) patients and their family-members share alexithymia, anxiety, depression, and other psychological symptoms, in the context of altered attachment. These domains have been individually studied in the context of eating disorders; few attempts have been made to study their interaction, especially including family members. In this study, alexithymia, parental-bonding, and psychopathology were assessed in 32 Italian families consisting of an adolescent AN patient, a sibling, and their parents. We aimed to (a) describe a sample of Italian families with a child affected by AN, notably including siblings; (b) investigate interactions between assessed constructs in patients and their siblings; and (c) investigate possible intergenerational effects. Results showed high alexithymia and psychopathological symptoms in patients but not in siblings, although the latter reported high obsession–compulsion and paranoid ideation scores. Patients’ and siblings’ alexithymia correlated with psychopathology. Parents reported generally low alexithymia. Perceived parental bonding was found to be suboptimal in most participants, yet no clear relationship was found between specific parenting styles and other measured traits, nor did we find any other relevant intergenerational effect. Anorexia nervosa implies psychological difficulties for all family members. Siblings’ psychopathological traits are especially concerning and currently understudied. Implications for future research and clinical interventions are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-91377822022-05-28 Parental-Bonding and Alexithymia in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa, Their Parents, and Siblings Mannarini, Stefania Kleinbub, Johann Roland Behav Sci (Basel) Article Anorexia nervosa (AN) patients and their family-members share alexithymia, anxiety, depression, and other psychological symptoms, in the context of altered attachment. These domains have been individually studied in the context of eating disorders; few attempts have been made to study their interaction, especially including family members. In this study, alexithymia, parental-bonding, and psychopathology were assessed in 32 Italian families consisting of an adolescent AN patient, a sibling, and their parents. We aimed to (a) describe a sample of Italian families with a child affected by AN, notably including siblings; (b) investigate interactions between assessed constructs in patients and their siblings; and (c) investigate possible intergenerational effects. Results showed high alexithymia and psychopathological symptoms in patients but not in siblings, although the latter reported high obsession–compulsion and paranoid ideation scores. Patients’ and siblings’ alexithymia correlated with psychopathology. Parents reported generally low alexithymia. Perceived parental bonding was found to be suboptimal in most participants, yet no clear relationship was found between specific parenting styles and other measured traits, nor did we find any other relevant intergenerational effect. Anorexia nervosa implies psychological difficulties for all family members. Siblings’ psychopathological traits are especially concerning and currently understudied. Implications for future research and clinical interventions are discussed. MDPI 2022-04-24 /pmc/articles/PMC9137782/ /pubmed/35621420 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs12050123 Text en © 2022 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
Mannarini, Stefania
Kleinbub, Johann Roland
Parental-Bonding and Alexithymia in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa, Their Parents, and Siblings
title Parental-Bonding and Alexithymia in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa, Their Parents, and Siblings
title_full Parental-Bonding and Alexithymia in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa, Their Parents, and Siblings
title_fullStr Parental-Bonding and Alexithymia in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa, Their Parents, and Siblings
title_full_unstemmed Parental-Bonding and Alexithymia in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa, Their Parents, and Siblings
title_short Parental-Bonding and Alexithymia in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa, Their Parents, and Siblings
title_sort parental-bonding and alexithymia in adolescents with anorexia nervosa, their parents, and siblings
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9137782/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35621420
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs12050123
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