The marital relationship of patients with an eating disorder: A questionnaire study

Five anorexic and 7 bulimic patients and their husbands as well as a control group of 13 married couples, one partner of which was treated for an anxiety disorder or depression, were studied by means of self-report inventories measuring psychiatric symptoms (SCL-90), memories of parental rearing behavior (EMBU), and aspects of the marital relationship (MAS, MMQ, and VIR). The results indicate that, as hypothesized, husbands of eating-disordered patients show neurotic scores, and, like their wives, perceive their mothers as overprotective. The patients as well as their husbands are dissatisfied with aspects of their marital relationship, but the affective quality of the relationship was rated more negative by the husbands than by the patients. At odds with predominant clinical hypotheses, no evidence was found for an unequal power distribution in the relationship or for perceptual incongruence between the spouses