Parents experiences; Anorexia Nervosa and specialist inpatient care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The lived experiences of parents whose anorexic adolescent is in a specialist eating disorders inpatient setting.
IRAS ID
240612
Contact name
Lisa Caygill
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Teesside University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
The why and what:
Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a severe life-threatening illness and is difficult to treat. With a higher prevalence in the adolescent population, parents play a key role in offering support and enabling recovery. Despite intense parental involvement, their experiences remain sparse in literature. Some research is available from community settings yet parent’s experiences of their child in a specialist eating disorders inpatient setting is scarce. Parents and their adolescent are separated, treatment and environment are unique. The specialist inpatient unit is characterised by strict regulation of each patient’s dietary intake and physical activity, routine measurement of physiological markers (body weight, bloods and urine samples) and continuous surveillance of mundane activities impacting upon an individual’s way of being.
Little is known about these parents lived experiences or ways to support them in this context. The importance of sampling parental experiences is further accentuated when considering previous literature which has suggested that positive parent involvement lessens the risk of AN becoming chronic and that high levels of patient symptoms are related the way the parent responds to their child and their distress.The what, who and how:
Parents whose child is suffering from AN in a specialist inpatient setting will be interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule to explore their experiences. Parents will be recruited from specialist eating disorders inpatient service for young people (11-17). Interviews will take place at an NHS building within the same site as the unit and parents will be offered the opportunity of being interviewed at another NHS site or their home. Interviews will be transcribed verbatim. Scripts will be analysed by the lead researcher (Jen Mrozik)and themes will be derived. These themes will be fed back to participants (optional). Overall the study should take approximately 12 months (design to write up). The study is non-funded.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NE/0216
Date of REC Opinion
10 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion