Family Structure and Adolescent Eating Disorder Tendencies

The current study examined (a) the current status of eating problems (eating disorder tendencies: EDT) in Japanese adolescents and (b) the association between adolescent EDT and a family structure consisting of three dyadic subsystems (marital, father-adolescent, and mother-adolescent). Participants were 663 high school and university students (341 males and 322 females) in Japan who completed a self-report questionnaire. Survey results revealed that 19 out of 341 males (5.57%) and 53 out of 322 females (16.46%), or 72 out of 663 participants (10.86%) in the entire sample, were categorized as having EDT according to the EAT-26. The male-to-female ratio of participants with EDT was 1 to 2.8. Many of the female adolescents with lower EAT-26 scores had a highly cohesive family structure with a balance of power in all dyads. The current findings suggested that adolescent eating problems are related to an unbalanced family structure. The clinical implications of these findings for family therapy are discussed.