Abstract
The Italian form of the short, 26-item Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) has been administered to 1277 Roman high-school students, mostly females, as a screening device Ninety-five students with a total score >20 and 40 students with a low score, were randomly selected, interviewed and diagnosed. The EAT-26 proved to be more sensitive to the presence of an eating disorder than to a specific clinical entity. Item analysis performed on the EAT-26 variables showed satisfactory reliability coefficients. Factor analysis using an oblique rotation was similar to that obtained by Garner et al. (1). Factor analysis with an orthogona rotation (Cattell’s screen test) identified five factors. Results suggested that the EAT-26 isolates cases at risk of clinical spectrum eating disorders.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Garner D.M., Garfinkel P.E.: The Eating Attitudes Test: an index of the symptoms of anorexia nervosa. Psychol. Med., 9, 273–279, 1979.
Garner D.M., Olmstead M.P., Bohr Y., Garfinkel P.E.: The Eating Attitudes Test: psychometric features and clinical correlates. Psychol. Med. 12, 871–878, 1982.
Cuzzolaro M.: Italian validation of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT 40). Presented at the International Symposium on Eating Disorders, Paris, April, 1991.
Nasser M.: The EAT speaks many languages: Review of the use of the EAT in eating disorders. Eating Weight Disord., 2, 174–181, 1997.
Dotti A., Lazzari R.: Seconda fase di uno studio epidemiologico dei disturbi del comportamento alimentare su una popolazione di studenti romani. Psichiatria e Psicoterapia Analitica, 18, 149–162, 1994.
Spitzer R.L., Williams J.W.B., Gibbon M.: Structured clinical interview for DSM -III-R (SCID). New York: Biometrics Research Department of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1989.
Buddeberg-Fischer B., Bernet R., Sieber M., Schmid J., Buddeberg C.: Epidemiology of eating behaviour and weight distribution in 14- to l9-year-old Swiss students. Acta Psychiatr. Scand., 93, 296–304, 1996.
Koslowsky M., Scheinberg Z., Bleich A., Mordechai M., Apter A., Yehuda D., Solomon Z.: The factor structure and criterion validity of the short form of the Eating Attitudes Test. J. Personality Assessment, 58, 27–35, 1992.
Wells J.E., Cooper P.A., Gabb D.C., Pears R.K.: The factor structure of the Eating Attitudes Test with adolescent schoolgirls. Psychol. Med., 15, 141–146, 1985.
Fairburn C.G., Beglin S.J.: Studies of the epidemiology of bulimia nervosa. Am. J. Psychiatry, 147, 401–408, 1990.
Szmukler G.I.: The epidemiology of anorexia nervosa and bulimia. J. Psychiatr. Res., 19, 143–153, 1985.
King M.B.: Eating disorders in a general practice population. Psychol. Med., 19 (Suppl. I), 1–33, 1989.
Striegel-Moore RH., Silberstein L.R, Frensch P., Rodin J.: A prospective study of disordered eating among college students. Int. J. Eating Disord., 8, 499–509, 1989.
Beglin S.l., Fairburn C.G.: Women who choose not to participate in surveys on eating disorders. Int. J. Eating Disord., 12, 113–116, 1992.
Ekstrom RB., Goretz M.E., Pollack J.M., Rock D.A.: Who drops out of high school and why? Findings from a national study. Teachers College Record, 87, 356–373, 1986.
Vandereycken W., Vanderlinden J.: Denial of illness and the use of self-reporting measures in anorexia nervosa patients. Int. J. Eating Disord., 2, 101–107, 1983.
Williams P., Hand D., Tarnopolsky A.: The problem of screening for uncommon disorders — a comment on the Eating Attitudes Test. Psychol. Med., 12, 431–434, 1982.
Monk E., Graham P., Richman N., Dobbs R.: Eating and weight control problems in a community population of adolescent girls aged 15–20 years. In: Remschmith H., Schmidt M.H. (Eds.), Anorexia Nervosa. Toronto, Hoegrefe/Huber, 1992, pp. 1–12.
Button E.J., Whitehouse A.: Subclinical anorexia nervosa. Psychol. Med., 11, 509–516, 1981.
Mann A.H., Wakeling A., Wood K., Monck E., Dobbs R., Szmukler G.: Screening for abnormal eating attitudes and psychiatric morbidity in an unselected population of 15-year old schoolgirls. Psychol. Med., 13, 573–580, 1983.
Williams R.L., Schaefer C.A., Shisslak C.M., Gronwaldt V.H., Comerci G.D.: Eating attitudes and behaviors in adolescent women: discrimination of normals, dieters and suspected bulimics using the Eating Attitudes Test and Eating Disorder Inventory. Int. J. Eating Disord., 5, 879–894, 1986.
Eisler I., Szmukler G.: Social class as a confounding variable in the Eating Attitude Test. J. Psychiatr. Res., 19, 171–176, 1984.
Patton G.C.: The spectrum of eating disorders in adolescence. J. Psychosom. Res., 32, 579–584, 1988.
Morgan H.G., Macquire-Samson I.M.P., Purgold J., Vassilas C.A.: Outcomc assessment. In: Herzog W., Deter H.-C, Vandereycken W. (Eds.), The Course of Eating Disorders. Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1992, pp. 30–39.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dotti, A., Lazzari, R. Validation and reliability of the Italian EAT-26. Eat Weight Disord 3, 188–194 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03340009
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03340009