Together with socio-cultural components, the family environment and early parent-child interactions play a role in the development of eating disorders. The aim of this study was to explore the nature of early parent-daughter relationships in a sample of forty-nine female in-patients with an eating disorder. To acquire a detailed image description of the patient’s childhood experiences we used diagnostic imagery, a Schema Therapy-derived experiential technique. This procedure allows exploring specific contents within the childhood memory (i.e., emotions and unmet core needs), bypassing rational control, commonly active during direct verbal questioning. Additionally, patients completed self-report measures to assess for eating disorder severity, general psychopathology, and individual and parental schemas pervasiveness. Finally, we explored possible differences in the diagnostic imagery content and self-report measures in two subgroups of patients with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Results showed that the most frequently reported unmet needs within patients’ childhood memories were those of safety/protection, care/nurturance, and emotional expression, referred specifically to the maternal figure. Overall, mothers were described as more abandoning, but at the same time particularly enmeshed in the relationship with their daughters. Conversely, patients perceived their fathers as more emotionally inhibited and neglecting. Imagery-based techniques might represent a powerful tool to explore the nature of early life experiences in eating disorders, allowing a more detailed case conceptualization and addressing intervention on early-life vulnerability aspects in disorder treatment.

中文翻译：

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饮食失调中的童年记忆：使用诊断图像的探索性研究

与社会文化因素一起，家庭环境和早期亲子互动在饮食失调的发展中起作用。本研究的目的是在 49 名患有饮食失调的女性住院患者样本中探索早期亲子关系的性质。为了获得患者童年经历的详细图像描述，我们使用了诊断图像，一种源自图式治疗的体验技术。这个过程允许探索童年记忆中的特定内容（即情绪和未满足的核心需求），绕过理性控制，通常在直接口头提问时活跃。此外，患者还完成了自我报告措施，以评估饮食失调的严重程度、一般精神病理学以及个人和父母模式的普遍性。最后，我们探讨了神经性厌食症和神经性贪食症患者的两个亚组在诊断图像内容和自我报告测量方面可能存在的差异。结果表明，患者童年记忆中最常报告的未满足需求是安全/保护、护理/养育和情感表达，特别是针对母亲形象。总体而言，母亲被描述为更加任性，但同时也特别投入到与女儿的关系中。相反，患者认为他们的父亲在情感上更加压抑和忽视。基于图像的技术可能是探索饮食失调早期生活经历本质的有力工具，