Group Parent Training for Adolescent Eating Disorders

While parents are considered essential for the effective treatment of adolescents with
anorexia nervosa, the most effective manner to involve parents in treatment is unknown.
Given reports of high caregiver burden among parents of this clinical group, finding
treatments that minimize parent burden while improving the child's eating disorder symptoms
is essential.

This investigation will examine the preliminary effectiveness of a parent skills group and
adolescent skills group compared to family therapy for the treatment of adolescent anorexia
nervosa. The target of this intervention is the improvement of eating disorder symptoms in
the child and improving self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and perceived burden in the
parent.

The effectiveness of this experimental treatment group (Group Parent Training for the
parents/Adolescent Skills Training for the adolescent) will be compared to the Maudsley
model of family therapy. The effectiveness of the group program will be examined by
exploring changes within individuals over time as well as via comparisons across treatment
conditions. Results from this investigation will be used to calculate treatment effect sizes
in the design of a larger, fully powered, randomized clinical trial.