The Emotional Eating Scale adapted for children and adolescents: Factorial invariance across adolescent males and females.
The purpose of the present study was to assess factorial invariance of the Emotional Eating Scale (EES) across a sample of adolescent males and females.



Two-hundred-twenty-six middle school students (mean age=13.19years; SD=1.00) completed the EES adapted for children and adolescents and a brief demographic survey. Approximately 40% of the sample were males. An item-level multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was performed specifying a bi-factor model that mapped onto the EES' four scores.



We found that the EES was partially invariant across sex in the current study's sample. The instrument appeared to measure the same constructs in both groups, except for the two items: worried and bored.



Our findings suggest that overall the EES items measure their intended constructs in both male and female adolescents, but caution should be used when interpreting scores that include the worried and bored items. These two item may have be measuring their constructs differently in adolescent females and males.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, USA. Electronic address: Christine_Limbers@baylor.edu.
Christine A
CA
Limbers
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, USA.
Danielle
D
Young
Department of Educational Psychology, Baylor University, USA.
A Alexander
AA
Beaujean
D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors
Adolescents; Emotional eating; Factorial invariance; Sex differences