The eating disorder examination: norms and construct validity with young and middle adolescent girls

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the norms and construct validity of the eating disorder examination (EDE) with young and middle adolescent girls.

The EDE was completed with 699 female twins aged 12-15 years. Four aspects of construct validation were examined: a factor analysis, internal reliability of the subscales, differences across the different age groups, and correlations between the variables. Results were reported separately for Twin 1 and 2 in order to examine the stability of the findings.

The factor structure of the EDE was unstable, except for an eight-item derived weight and shape concern subscale. This scale, along with the total score and the shape concern subscale had good internal reliability. The cognitive diagnostic items performed strongly in terms of discriminating between age groups and presence of disordered eating.

Given the central role of weight and shape concern and the importance of weight and shape in diagnosis and predicting onset of disordered eating, it would appear that the EDE is likely to perform well as both a diagnostic and predictive tool. Caution should be exercised with respect to the use and interpretation of the individual subscales in nonclinical populations of young adolescent girls.