Parental and Peer Relationships and Their Impact on Symptom Severity in Adolescent Patients With Anorexia Nervosa

Perceived parental relationship characteristics, such as maternal overprotection, rejection or neglect, and peer victimisation, are suggested to be more common in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) than in healthy controls. This study compares parental and peer relationships in adolescent patients with AN to those in a clinical control group (CC; a matched group of patients with other mental disorders) and investigates their association with AN severity.

Self-reported parental and peer relationships were compared between adolescents with AN (n = 43) and CC (n = 127), matched for age, sex and global functioning. Multiple linear and logistic regression were used to analyse the association between parental and peer relationships and AN severity.

The AN group exhibited a more positive overall evaluation of parental relationships (b = 18.34, p = 0.002), particularly with fathers (b = 5.30, p = 0.028), fewer parental discrepancies (b = -7.67, p = 0.013), less peer victimisation (OR = 0.43, p = 0.030) and perpetration (OR = 0.26, p = 0.006) than the CC group. No significant associations were identified between these relationships and AN severity.

In contrast to previous studies comparing social relationships in patients with AN and healthy controls, our findings suggest that increased positive parental and peer relationships may serve as a resource, irrespective of symptom severity.