ABSTRACT
The parental influence on eating behaviours and the parent-child (particularly mother-daughter) relationship has been intensely explored in clinical research in the context of eating disorders (Barber & Thomas, 1986; Arevalo & Escursell, 1997; Fassino et al., 2002, 2003; Woodside et al., 2002), but the role of fathers themselves has been somewhat neglected. We redress this balance in this chapter as there is some evidence suggesting that fathers can be particularly important. First, we examine the father’s role with regards to risk and protective factors, and second, we look at evidence suggesting that fathers can also have a protective role in buffering risk, as well as contributing to recovery.
