Psychometric properties of the Eating Attitude Test-26 for female Iranian students

The main purpose of the present study was to assess the factor structure, the convergent and divergent validity, and the reliability of the Eating Attitude Test (EAT-26) in a sample of female Iranian students.

After a rigorous translation and back-translation of the EAT-26, 561 female students from the Tonekabon branch of the Islamic Azad University completed the EAT-26, the Binge Eating Scale (BES), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Six weeks later, 74 of these students participated in a test-retest procedure.

The exploratory factor analysis resulted in a five-factor solution that accounted for 50% of the total variance. The factors included "drive for thinness", "restrained eating", "perceived social pressure to eat", "oral control", and "bulimia". These factors demonstrated satisfactory concurrent validity, acceptable to high internal consistency (0.76-0.92), and low test-retest reliability (0.26-0.64). The factors effectively identified the students who were currently on a diet, and those who had never participated in a weight reduction program.

The results provide mixed support for the reliability and validity of the EAT-26 for a non-clinical Iranian population. However, its discriminant validity makes it a useful measure for screening purposes and identifying women at risk for developing disordered eating or eating disorders. Future research should replicate this study in both non-clinical and clinical settings in Iran.