t and become hungry cannot access the food services and resort to vending machines or fast food restaurants. Dorm rooms do not usually have refrigerators, so the young woman cannot provide herself with healthy fruits and vegetables for snacking. In a larger sense, the young female student has not observed others handle stress in a mature way, so she experiences loss of self-esteem and automatically seeks a safe emotional outlet which has brought her relief in the past--food. 5 Several researchers trace difficulties with food and eating to problems in the female student's family of origin. Edward Abramson found that there is a relationship between childhood sexual experiences and bulimia (1991, 529). Students who suffered from bulimia often came from families characterized by lack of parental affection, negative, hostile, and disengaged patterns of family interaction, impulsive parents, and familial alcoholism. Families in which the mothers and daughters do not differentiate from each other also showed a positive correlation with anorexia nervosa and bulimia (Friedlander & Siegel, 1990, p. 74). According to Murray Bowen's theories of family systems, the important task of individuation is denied the young person and the family remains "stuck together." Such a dynamic is troublesome for the young woman, and she develops poor eating habits as a way of exerting some control in a difficult family that is enmeshed and poorly differentiated. Carol Bailey found that families with low cohesion, low expressiveness, and high conflict were more likely to produce a young woman who is bulimic (1991, p. 272). An emphasis on achievement and the variable of the mother not working outside the home also has a significant effect on bulimic symptoms. Young women who suffer from bulimia report that their families lacked in commitment, help, and support, and instead exhibited anger and aggression. These dynamics are similar to those mentioned by Anne Katherine...
