ABSTRACT
Family functioning was one of the earliest factors suggested to be relevant to the eating disorders. L. K. G. Hsu pointed out that many single cause models of eating disorders have been advanced, and that family dysfunction is only one of the possible factors that might explain anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Understanding the role of any factor in the eating disorders depends on understanding the methodological issues that are inherent in research into clinical and developmental psychology. In an early study, M. G. Morgan and G. F. M. Russell described a number of family factors that appeared to be associated with the presence of anorexia nervosa, including evidence of psychiatric disorder and family disharmony. The parenting factors behind eating behaviors in childhood have been studied largely through direct observation. Parenting is only one of a number of factors that influence food preference and refusal in children and adolescents.
