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Internal Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) in a (Nearly) Representative Dutch Community Sample
Author(s) -
Barrada Juan Ramón,
Strien Tatjana,
Cebolla Ausiàs
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
european eating disorders review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.511
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1099-0968
pISSN - 1072-4133
DOI - 10.1002/erv.2448
Subject(s) - psychology , measurement invariance , eating disorders , sample (material) , structural equation modeling , exploratory factor analysis , population , emotional eating , association (psychology) , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychometrics , confirmatory factor analysis , eating behavior , statistics , obesity , medicine , environmental health , mathematics , chemistry , chromatography , psychotherapist
The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire is a widely used instrument for assessment of emotional, external and restrained eating. The aim of the present study is to (i) analyse its internal structure using exploratory structural equation modelling; (ii) to assess its measurement invariance with respect to sex, BMI, age and level of education; and (iii) to evaluate the relations of the factors with these variables. Except that women were slightly over‐represented, the sample ( n = 2173) closely followed the sociodemographic characteristics of the overall Dutch population. The three theoretical factors that emerged from the analysis were in close correspondence with the three scales for emotional, external and restrained eating. Only two items (item 3 — ‘desire to eat when nothing to do…’ and item 21 — ‘resist delicious food...’) presented problematic loadings. The questionnaire showed satisfactory measurement invariance, and expected patterns of mean differences and relations were found. All in all, the results highlight the adequate psychometric properties of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.