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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Dysfunctional rearing in community and clinic based populations with eating problems: prevalence and mediating role of psychiatric morbidity

subject

description

Objective To assess the presence of dysfunctional rearing in adolescent females with ED and the role of psychiatric comorbidity as mediating variable of this relationship. Method Administration of a rearing-attitude questionnaire (EMBU-A) and a standardized psychiatric evaluation. Data from a two-phase epidemiological study and from ED inpatients. Case diagnosis was performed using wide DSM-IV criteria (n = 29). Controls were matched by age and school. Results Significant differences were found between EDs subjects and controls on the scales of emotional warmth, overprotection, and rejection. There were no rearing differences between community cases and hospitalized patients. Paternal rejection is the correlate most strongly associated with EDs in teenage women. Structural Equation Modeling shows that this association is mediated by psychiatric comorbidity. Psychiatric comorbidity does not mediate the association between maternal rejection and EDs diagnosis. Conclusions Rearing is a correlate for ED. This association is partly mediated by psychiatric comorbidity. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.