Abstract

SALAZAR MORA, Zaida  and  PRADO-CALDERON, Jorge Esteban. Analysis of the discriminant validity of the eating attitudes test through the Rasch Model. Reflexiones [online]. 2015, vol.94, n.1, pp.123-135. ISSN 1659-2859.

We analyze the discriminant validity of the Eating Attitude Test (EAT-40) through the Item Response Theory and its one-parameter model, known as the Rasch model. The EAT-40 (Garner & Garfinkel, 1979) is an instrument for early detection of risk to develop eating disorders (ED), and its evidences of validity in Costa Rica are reviewed in this paper. For this study, the Spanish version of the instrument (Castro, Toro, Salamero & Guimerá, 1991) was applied to a sample of 556 women from the metropolitan area of Costa Rica, with an average age of 17.66 years (SD = 6.65). To increase the variability of the scores, the sample was composed of high school students (n = 391, 70.3%), university students (n = 120, 21.6%), ballet academy students (n = 26, 4.7%) and anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa hospitalized patients (n = 19, 3.4%). Through the Rasch model, the analysis of the item-person map, and the analysis of the characteristic curve of the items and the complete test, consistent evidence of the ability of the EAT-40 items to discriminate between people with and without the risk of ED was obtained. In the last section, the findings are discussed and the clinical sample size limitations are approached.

Keywords : Eating Attitudes Test; eating disorders; anorexia nervosa; item response theory; Rasch model; validity; mental health; mental diseases; women; youth.

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