Abstract
<b>Background and Aim.</b> Family accommodation has been identified as a maintaining factor of eating disorders, with families often caught up in the rigid behaviours that characterise the illness. Given that parents often accommodate symptoms of their child’s eating disorder to reduce family conflict and the young person’s distress, levels of parents’ distress tolerance may help explain the variability seen in family accommodation. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between parental distress tolerance (specifically tolerance of negative emotions and intolerance of uncertainty) and family accommodation and assess the role of illness severity, caregiver burden, and parents’ mental health on this association.
<b>Methods.</b> Parents or carers (N=84) of young people (aged <18) with a suspected or diagnosed eating disorder completed an online survey comprising of screening questions, demographic and clinical information, validated questionnaires, and questions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
<b>Results.</b> Tolerance of negative emotions (TNE), but not intolerance of uncertainty, was significantly associated with family accommodation. Multiple regression analyses revealed that when other significant correlates of accommodating behaviour were entered into the model (caregiver mental health and caregiver burden), only caregiver burden remained significantly associated with family accommodation. Bootstrapped mediation analysis indicated that the association between TNE on family accommodation is fully mediated by caregiver burden.
<b>Conclusions.</b> There is an association between parents’ tolerance of negative emotions and accommodation behaviours, however this association was fully mediated by caregiver burden. The clinical implications and directions for future research to consider are discussed.