The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26): reliability and validity in Spanish female samples.
This paper focuses on the validation of the Spanish form of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26; Garner, Olmsted, Bohr & Garfinkel, 1982) across two studies. Participants in Study 1 were 778 females recruited from community settings (aged 12-21). Study 2 included 86 females recruited from clinical and 86 females from community settings (aged 12-35). Results from Principal and Simultaneous Component Analyses showed a unidimensional structure of the EAT-26 item scores. Reliability analyses supported the internal consistency of the scale. Study 1 also explores the ability of the EAT-26 to discriminate between subjects with Eating Disorder (ED), Symptomatic or Asymptomatic by means of ROC analyses and using results from the Questionnaire for Eating Disorder Diagnoses (Q-EDD; Mintz, O'Halloran, Mulholland, & Schneider, 1997) as criterion. The EAT-26 demonstrated good specificity but insufficient sensitivity to detect a full or partial ED. Study 2 explores the ability of the questionnaire to discriminate between subjects with and without ED. The EAT-26 demonstrated good specificity and moderate sensitivity to detect ED. Clinical and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.
Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain. moya@uma.es
Teresa
T
Rivas
Rosa
R
Bersabé
Manuel
M
Jiménez
Carmen
C
Berrocal
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001290:Attitude; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013030:Spain; D055815:Young Adult