Social support, social adjustment, and recovery status in bulimia nervosa

Objective: To examine recovery status in bulimia nervosa (BN) and its relat ion to social support and social adjustment. Method: Using a cross-sectiona l design, we administered the modified Social Support Questionnaire and the Social Adjustment Scale-Self-Report (SAS-SR) to 40 women, each of whom was actively bulimic (ABN), was in remission from BN (RBN), or had no history of eating disturbance (comparison). Results: In terms of social support, re lative to RBN and comparison subjects, the ABN group had significantly fewe r persons in their friendship and kinship networks available to provide emo tional support, although the groups were equivalent in number of persons av ailable to provide things and advice. Relative to the comparison group, bot h bulimic groups were significantly dissatisfied with the quality of emotio nal support provided by relatives. On the SAS-SR, women in the ABN group di splayed the poorest overall social functioning. The RBN group was functioni ng significantly better than the ABN group, but significantly more poorly t han the comparison group. Discussion: Our results suggest that the social f unctioning of RBN women lies between ABN women and non-eating-disordered wo men, indicating both gains relative to the active phase and residual defici ts. (C) 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.