Investigation of quality of the parental relationship as a risk factor forsubclinical bulimia nervosa

Objective: Previous literature suggests a link between the quality of the p arental relationship and disordered eating in offspring. We investigated th e relationship between offspring pyschopathology and the parental relations hip using a population-based twin registry that contained 766 complete twin pairs. Method: We used reports of twin lifetime psychopathology from the t wins and quality of parental relationship and parental lifetime psychopatho logy from both parents. Results: Poorer quality of the marital relationship predicted the presence of subclinical bulimia nervosa (SBN) using both mot her's (odds ratio [OR] = 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.71-0.97) and father's (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.62-0.97) reports. It also predicted the pre sence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and alcohol dependence. SBN was still strongly predicted by the marital relationship when parental psychop athology was included as a covariate. Discussion: These results are support ive of the notion that a conflictual and distant marital relationship can, at least partially, act as an environmental risk factor for SBN. (C) 2001 b y John Wiley & Sons, Inc.