Caregivers Participating in Eating Disorder Treatment
Our research team at the University of New England have developed a new measure to identify challenges or strengths which may influence parents and caregivers’ ability to participate in eating disorder treatment for the young person they support. It is delivered online in a self-report version. If you are participating (or have previously participated) in eating disorder treatment for a young person, we are interested in hearing about the challenges you face/d during treatment.
Eating disorders affect a significant and increasing percentage of children and adolescents. The recommended evidence-based treatment for child and adolescent eating disorders is family-based treatment (FBT) and its variations including family treatment for anorexia nervosa (FT-AN), Maudsley FBT, parent-focused treatment, multi-family treatment (MFT) and intensive day treatment programs (DTP). A core tenet of family treatment includes empowering caregivers to renourish their child. While the effectiveness of active caregiver participation in treatment has been validated in clinical trials and standard practice, it is acknowledged that caregiver strengths and challenges are highly individual and can influence treatment delivery, ability to participate, and outcomes.
Our measure was developed in collaboration with experts in eating disorder research and psychometric test development using the Delphi method. Its purpose is to provide a tool to help clinicians and families identify what factors specific to each family may help or present challenges to successful treatment.
We are now seeking parents or caregivers who currently or recently participate/d in eating disorder treatment for a child or adolescent aged 6-18 years. We will ask participants to complete the measure so that we may test its psychometric properties.
Participants will be asked to complete the measure anonymously on one occasion, delivered by an online Qualtrics survey. Please click below to access the participant information sheet and the survey:
This study has received Human Research Ethical Approval from the University of New England Human Research Ethics Committee, approval number HE23-171 valid to 19 December, 2024.
The research team’s contact details are:
S.A. McCord smccord@myune.edu.au
Dr Kylie Rice krice3@une.edu.au
Dr Adam Rock arock@une.edu.au
