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Assessment of weight and eating concerns in Norwegian adolescents
Author(s) -
Lau Bjørn,
Alsaker FranÇoise
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9450.00187
Subject(s) - dieting , psychology , norwegian , internal consistency , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , eating attitudes test , eating disorders , depression (economics) , eating disorder inventory , psychometrics , bulimia nervosa , weight loss , obesity , medicine , macroeconomics , linguistics , philosophy , economics
The aim of the present study was to test the properties of an instrument that assesses concerns about weight and eating without reference to dieting behavior. A short instrument, the Weight and Eating Concerns Inventory (WECI) was examined in a sample of 569 boys and 548 girls aged 11 to 15 years. Confirmatory factor analyses with LISREL showed a better fit with a version of the instrument that did not include a reference to dieting behavior, compared to a version that included such a reference. This was true for both boys and girls, irrespective of their age group. However, the results indicated that both versions should be used with caution for young boys. The internal consistency of the WECI (that is, the version without reference to dieting) was satisfactory, ranging from 0.78 to 0.86 for girls and from 0.68 to 0.73 for boys. The WECI correlated quite substantially with negative self‐evaluations and depression for boys and girls in all the age groups assessed, suggesting that high scores on the WECI may indicate a problem that goes beyond worries or concerns, and should be taken seriously. In general, girls reported more of these concerns than boys, and the correlation between the WECI and dieting was stronger among girls compared to boys.