Reliability and validity of the child version of the Eating Disorder Examination: a preliminary investigation.
OBJECTIVE
The Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) is a reliable and valid semistructured interview that measures the specific psychopathology of anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa. The current study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the child adaptation of the EDE (ChEDE 12.0).


METHODS
The ChEDE was administered to 15 children with AN, 15 children with other clinical eating disturbances, and two groups of 15 age-matched controls. The groups were compared using a two-sample matched groups design.


RESULTS
Alpha coefficients for each of the ChEDE subscales indicated a high degree of internal consistency, and interrater reliability was found to be high (r = .91 to r = 1.00). The subscale scores of the AN group were significantly higher than those of the other groups, whereas the other eating disturbance group did not differ from its control group.


CONCLUSIONS
The ChEDE differentiates children with AN from children with other forms of clinical eating disturbance and control children.
Watkins
Beth
B
Department of Mental Health, St. George's Hospital Medical School, London, United Kingdom. e.watkins@sghms.ac.uk
Frampton
Ian
I
Lask
Bryan
B
Bryant-Waugh
Rachel
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008131:London; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results