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Eating attitude test factors in an unselected undergraduate population
Author(s) -
Smead Valerie S.,
Richert Alphons J.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/1098-108x(199003)9:2<211::aid-eat2260090211>3.0.co;2-t
Subject(s) - varimax rotation , psychology , eating attitudes test , test (biology) , population , demography , eating disorders , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychometrics , cronbach's alpha , biology , paleontology , sociology
The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) was given to 310 male and 302 female undergraduate volunteers who represented a cross section of students enrolled at a regional university. The responses of the 612 subjects to the EAT items were factor‐analyzed separately by sex using a principal components procedure and a varimax rotation. Both males and females produced a six‐factor structure which accounted for approximately 40% of the variance (39.8% males, 42.4% females). Three factors were common to the sexes, and each sex produced three sex‐specific factors. The implications of these findings for the use of the EAT scale as a measure of attitudes toward food and eating in a nonanorexic population are discussed.