title: Assessment of eating disorder psychopathology in obese children and adolescents: interview versus self-report questionnaire.
abstract: The present study compared two methods for assessing binge eating and related eating disorder psychopathology in obese children and adolescents. A comparison was made between the child version of the Eating Disorder Examination (ChEDE) and the self-report version of the interview (ChEDE-Q). A total of 139 children and adolescents (aged 10-16 years) seeking inpatient treatment for obesity completed the ChEDE questionnaire and were administered the ChEDE interview afterwards. The ChEDE and ChEDE-Q were significantly correlated for the four subscales: restraint, eating concern, weight concern and shape concern. The ChEDE-Q generated consistently higher levels of eating disorder psychopathology. There was a significant discrepancy for the assessment of a more complex feature such as binge eating. Overall, the current study found lower levels of agreement between the EDE and EDE-Q than previously reported in adult samples. It appears that children and adolescents have difficulties in identifying binge-eating episodes when they receive no detailed instruction. It is concluded that a clinical interview is necessary to identify eating disorders in obese children and that a self-report questionnaire can only be used as a screening tool. Even then, thorough clarification of the definition of the eating disorder features is needed when using a self-report questionnaire.
authors.affiliation: Department of Development, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, H. Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Veerle
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Decaluwé
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Braet
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002032:Bulimia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires