| In the West and in Hong Kong, three knowledge gaps are found in family treatment research: (1) there is an inadequacy of process-outcome studies in family treatment; (2) there is little research that includes the views of patients, families, raters, and researcher about changes in the anorectic symptoms and the family relationships; and (3) none of the discovery process studies has been done in the research domain of significant events including both helpful and hindering events in family treatment that examines families with a daughter suffering from anorexia nervosa.;In an effort to fill in these gaps, this study aims to fulfill four objectives: to describe the family treatment process of these families; to identify perceived events that helped and those that hindered the patients' recovery, from the perspectives of patients, family, raters and researcher; to determine whether these events were related or unrelated to family therapy; and to explore whether the frequency of these events had any association with the treatment outcome.;Four female patients suffering from anorexia nervosa and their families were recruited using purposive sampling. This study adopted a mixed method: (1) a single subject design was employed to evaluate the treatment outcome. Quantitative data were collected by administering four standardized instruments (EDI, SCL-90, FAD, & DAS) at three junctures: baseline, post-treatment, and six months after termination of treatment; and (2) a multiple case design was utilized to identify the perceived significant events in the course of family treatment. Qualitative data were collected by inviting the patients, the raters, and the researcher to review a total of eighteen videotapes of family therapy sessions independently. Post-treatment interviews were conducted to explore the families' subjective experience of family treatment.;The results suggest that there is indeed an association between process, in terms of the frequency of perceived significant events, and outcome: a greater number of helping events led to a better treatment outcome; while a greater number of hindering events led to a worse treatment outcome.;This thesis also discusses the researcher's role in the patients' recoveries, the connection between mass media and anorexia nervosa, the fathers' roles in treatment, and prevention of anorexia nervosa. It ends by highlighting the study's limitations and contributions. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
