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Protective factors against disordered eating in family systems: a systematic review of research

Langdon-Daly, J; Serpell, L; (2017) Protective factors against disordered eating in family systems: a systematic review of research. Journal of Eating Disorders , 5 , Article 12. 10.1186/s40337-017-0141-7. Green open access

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aims to identify and evaluate the literature investigating protective factors and eating disorders (EDs), to establish what is known about factors in family systems that could be considered protective against the development of ED/disordered eating. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was conducted on five databases, using search terms related to ED/disordered eating and protective factors. Studies were systematically screened and included if they made reference to a protective factor within the family system and explored associations with a quantitative measure of ED/disordered eating behaviours. All included studies were evaluated for study quality. RESULTS: Twenty-five studies met criteria for inclusion. Ten papers made use of longitudinal or prospective designs appropriate to identify factors potentially protecting against the development of disordered eating difficulties, while a further 15 papers report cross-sectional associations between family factors and disordered eating outcomes. Studies looked at aspects of family relationships and family practices around food or eating. There was a particular research focus on the potential protective role of regular family meals. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Many of the potential protective factors identified, such as family support and connectedness, may be non-specific to eating difficulties, promoting general adaptive development and a range of positive development outcomes. Factors in the family environment around food, eating and weight, such as frequent family meals and avoiding comments about weight, may be more specific to ED and disordered eating. Issues with the methodologies used severely impact on the ability to draw conclusions about whether factors are 'protective'.

Type: Article
Title: Protective factors against disordered eating in family systems: a systematic review of research
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1186/s40337-017-0141-7
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40337-017-0141-7
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Keywords: Disordered eating, Eating disorders, Family, Protective factors, Systematic review
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1549472
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