Preliminary Validation of The Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire-Short Parent Version (EDE-QS-P)

ABSTRACT

Objective: There is a lack of reliable and valid parent-report measures assessing eating disorder (ED) pathology in children and adolescents. This study aimed to develop and provide preliminary validation of a new parent-report measure, the 12-item Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire-Short Parent Version (EDE-QS-P). Method: The EDE-QS-P was completed by 296 parents seeking treatment for their child at an ED clinic. Children (ages 6–18, N = 296) completed the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q), the seven-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7), and the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Results: After removing item 10, the 11-item version of the EDE-QS-P showed borderline adequate fit to the one factor solution and strong internal consistency (α = 0.91). This measure also demonstrated strong convergent validity with child scores on the EDE-Q (r = .69), and moderate convergent validity with child scores on the GAD-7 (r = .37) and PHQ-9 (r = .46). The EDE-QS-P was able to differentiate children with EDs characterized by body image disturbances (e.g. anorexia nervosa) from those with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, who do not experience shape or weight concerns. Discussion: The 11-item EDE-QS-P may be a promising parent-report measure of ED pathology in children and adolescents.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10640266.2023.2218675

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Compliance with ethical standards

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was given by the Penn State Institutional Review Board (8749).

Author contributions statement

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: writing, reviewing, and editing manuscript drafts: all authors; data collection: A. E. Webster, J. Essayli, & S. Lane-Loney; analysis and interpretation of results: A. E. Webster & H. Zickgraf; study methodology: A. E. Webster, H. Zickgraf, S. Lane-Loney, & J. Essayli; measure development: N. Gideon, J. Mond, L. Serpell, S. Lane-Loney, & J. Essayli. All authors reviewed the results and approved

the final version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Notes

1. To account for violation of homogeneity of variance in the EDE-QS-P, sensitivity analyses were conducted using a Welch test (a t-test with no assumption of equal variances for the difference in the EDE-QS-P-11 between ARFID and other ED) using the EDE-QS-P with age and sex regressed out. The results of the sensitivity analysis demonstrated significant overall differences across diagnoses, t(172.39) = 8.99, p < .001, d = 1.06. This is consistent with the results of the one-way ANCOVA.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.