CARETAKING, SEPARATION FROM PARENTS, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EATING DISORDERS

The authors investigated the relationship between the cognitive and be havioral indicators of eating disorders and characteristics of codepen dency, including exaggerated caretaking and constricted emotion. In ad dition, the role of family environment was investigated through an ass essment oi separation from parents. College women who displayed more c odependent characteristics evidenced higher levels of eating disordere d behavior and conflictual separation from parents. The findings sugge st that codependency may serve as an additional variable in the relati onship between eating disorders and separation/individuation difficult ies. Implications for counseling with college women are discussed.