. The young woman tries valiantly to cope with the negative effects of such a family background. Research shows that she may ~r. 6 suffer from social phobia, hostility, locus of control problems, depression, and anxiety. Cynthia Bulik found that young anorexic and bulimic women held fears similar to those of social phobics. fears experienced not only in connection with eating or not eating but also in other social situations. They also felt insecure about their body shape and size (Bulik, Beidel, & Duchmann, 1991, p. 210~. Another study shows that depression, anxiety, and hostility all are associated with bulimic behavior (Rebert, Stanton, & Schwarz, 1991, p. 500). The young student who experiences extreme mood swings attempts to control the emotions through a destructive cycle of overeating and purging for relief and release. One study shows that students with eating disorders are likely to come from dysfunctional families but raises the question about why some people adapt to such stress in other ways and do not become overeaters or undereaters. The severity of the eating difficulty was apparently not related to the severity of the family disturbance (Stieger, Liquornik, Chapman, & Hussain, 1991, p. 512). Apparently this area deserves more research to determine the more exact relationships between types of family problems and the resulting eating disorders. One group of college women participated in a college study which found that those with eating disorders rated higher on body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, child-like nature, and low self-esteem (Beren & Chrisler, 1990, p. 198). However, the study did not find any relationship between any particular personality type and eating disordered behavior. The tests used for the 7 study were the Eating Disorders Inventory, the Texas Social Behavior Inventory, the Social Desirability Scale, and the Bem Sex-Role Inventory. Another study examined the degree to which the eight subscales o...
