Parental Involvement and Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders: Perspectives from Residents in Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Family Medicine.

OBJECTIVES: Best practice guidelines encourage the involvement of parents in the assessment and treatment of child/adolescent eating disorders (ED). This study investigated medical residents' perspectives regarding parental involvement as well as their expectations for future practice in the assessment and treatment of ED.

METHOD: Five hundred and eighty-four medical residents from 17 Canadian residency programs specializing in family medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry completed a web-based survey. Questions pertained to assessment and treatment practices for child/adolescent ED. Analyses included ANOVAs, paired t-tests, and, for residents who endorsed family involvement (N = 444), qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS: Overall, residents reported that they "mostly" agreed with the involvement of family in the assessment and treatment of ED. Residents' endorsement of family involvement in both domains increased according to the extent of ED training received. Four major themes emerged from the content analysis of family involvement and included recommendations in line with evidence-based models and unspecified, passive involvement in the assessment and recovery process.

CONCLUSIONS: Many residents endorse family involvement in both assessment and treatment; however, understanding of the nature of such involvement is often vague. Training in evidence-based protocols is necessary for residents planning to engage in multi-disciplinary assessment, referral, and/or treatment in their future practice.