To explore eating disorders in adolescent females, this study examined the family perceptions of 22 daughters with maladaptive eating attitudes and 88 daughters without maladaptive eating attitudes. The results indicated that daughters with maladaptive eating attitudes reported problems with their fathers on communication, problem solving, autonomy issues, and expression of warmth, while reporting problems in communication and expression of warmth with their mothers. Parents of the two groups did not report any differences, although correlational data indicated that parents of daughters who reported more maladaptive eating attitudes were more likely to report family structural problems involving triangulation (bringing other family members into a conflict).
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