Parents' intentions associated with critical incidents they undertake in the career development of their children are examined from an intentional action perspective. From interviews with 207 parents, 1,772 critical incidents were identified. Approximately half of the incidents contributed to the construction of 10 categories representing the intentions of parents; the remainder was used to substantiate the categories. The categories illustrate that parents, although not necessarily attempting to influence particular occupational choice, are active agents in influencing their children in a broad range of areas in career development.

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A family systems perspective was used to explore familial transactional patterns related to anorexia nervosa. Father, mother and daughter, interpersonal assessments of parental initiative and daughter responsive behaviors as reported on Benjamin's (1974) Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB), were combined to serve as data for a hierarchical cluster analysis. Out of the 22 families with an anorexic child and the 22 matched control families, 7 family groups with unique family dynamics differentiating one from another emerged out of the clustering procedure. Prototypic family profiles were established and examined using Benjamin's (1984) program Figure (FIG) to explicate central features of the family transactional relationships. With no single family pattern characterizing the families of the anorexic daughters, the study challenges earlier family theories that postulated a single anorexogenic family system, and supports a broader, more complex view of anorexics and their families.

Aspects of the eco‐systemic approach were used to provide a framework for the understanding of anorexia nervosa and were empirically tested by comparing 30 anorexics and their parents to 34 matched control subjects and their parents. The theoretical model employed was an adaptation of Conger's Ecological‐Systems approach which was based on the principles of Bronfenbrenner's theory of human development. The subjects were compared on selected variables arising from the individual, parent, family, and community systems using (a) the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), (b) the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB), (c) the Family Environment Scale (FES), and (d) the Pattison Psychological Inventory (PPI). Discriminant analysis revealed that the Affiliation score (SASB) for the anorexic and the control subjects and the Psychopathic Deviancy score (CPI‐Clinical) of the mothers of the anorexics and the controls were the variables which contributed most to the discrimination between the groups. With the Affiliation and the Psychopathic Deviancy scores alone it was possible to correctly classify 87·5 per cent of the research subjects. Analyses also showed statistically significant results at the individual, parent, and family levels. Interactions within the family, as perceived by the anorexics, were characterized by overprotection and control by the mothers, while the anorexics themselves responded with significantly less affiliation to both their mothers and their fathers. The mothers of the anorexics also viewed their daughters as being less friendly in the relationship. The families of the anorexics were less supportive, helpful, and committed to each other than were the families of the control subjects as measured by the FES.