Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire—Body Image: Psychometric Properties and Its Incremental Power in the Prediction of Binge Eating Severity

ABSTRACT

Given the clinical usefulness of the CFQ-BI (Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire—Body Image; the only existing measure to assess the body-image-related cognitive fusion), the present study aimed to confirm its one-factor structure, to verify its measurement invariance between clinical and non-clinical samples, to analyze its internal consistency and sensitivity to detect differences between samples, as well as to explore the incremental and convergent validities of the CFQ-BI scores in Brazilian samples.  This was a cross-sectional study, which was conducted in clinical (women with overweight or obesity in treatment for weight loss) and non-clinical samples (women from the general population). The one-factor structure was confirmed showing factorial measurement invariance across clinical and non-clinical samples. The CFQ-BI scores presented an excellent internal consistency, were able to discriminate clinical and non-clinical samples, and were positively associated with binge eating severity, general cognitive fusion, and psychological inflexibility. Furthermore, body-image-related cognitive fusion scores (CFQ-BI) presented incremental validity over a general measure of cognitive fusion in the prediction of binge eating symptoms. This study demonstrated that CFQ-BI is a short scale with reliable and robust scores in Brazilian samples, presenting incremental and convergent validities, measurement invariance, and sensitivity to detect differences between clinical and non-clinical groups of women, enabling comparative studies between them.

KEYWORDS:

• Assessment
• body image
• CFQ-BI
• obesity and weight-related issues
• psychometrics

Funding

This research work was supported by CNPq (Brazilian National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development) and FAPERGS (Foundation for Research of the State of Rio Grande do Sul—Brazil). Moreover, the first author has a full PhD. scholarship to study abroad sponsored by CAPES (Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel). Also, the second author is supported by a Ph.D. Grant (SFRH/BD/101906/2014) sponsored by FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology). Finally, the third author is a CNPq fellowship (Research Productivity grant). None of the sponsors has participated in the design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, writing the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication in this journal.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paola Lucena-Santos

Paola Lucena-Santos is a Ph.D. student in the Cognitive and Behavioral Center for Research and Intervention (CINEICC) at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Her research interests are focused on the behavioral and contextual sciences, with particular emphasis on acceptance, compassion and mindfulness-based interventions and resources, transcultural studies and psychometric validations of self-report measures in clinical and general populations.

Inês A. Trindade

Inês A. Trindade is a Ph.D. student in the Cognitive and Behavioral Center for Research and Intervention (CINEICC) at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Her research interests are focused on the contextual sciences, with special emphasis on acceptance, compassion and mindfulness-based interventions and resources for chronic illness.

Margareth Oliveira

Margareth Oliveira, MSc., Ph.D., is a professor of Clinical Psychology in the Faculty of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. She is the Scientific Coordinator of the Evaluation and Treatment in Cognitive and/or Behavioral Therapies Research Group (GAAPCC). She develops substantive research on cognitive and behavioral therapies and psychological assessment, with particular emphasis in development and/or adaptation and evaluation of effectiveness of structured interventions, as well as psychometric validations of self-report measures in clinical and general populations.

José Pinto-Gouveia

José Pinto-Gouveia, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor of Clinical Psychology in the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal. He is the Scientific Coordinator of the Cognitive and Behavioral Center for Research and Intervention (CINEICC). He develops substantive research on behavioral and contextual sciences, including the role of conditional psychological processes in the development and maintenance of several forms os psychopatology and behavioral problems, as well as acceptance, compassion and mindfulness-based interventions in general and clinical populations.