Award Date

5-1-2022

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Committee Member

Shane Kraus

Second Committee Member

Brenna Renn

Third Committee Member

Stephen Benning

Fourth Committee Member

Elizabeth Lawrence

Number of Pages

116

Abstract

The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) was originally validated in non-Hispanic White women and over the past two decades has become widely used as an eating pathology screening measure in college students. However, the original factor structure has generally failed to replicate across most studies, particularly among culturally diverse samples. The current study examined the factor structure and measurement invariance of the EDE-Q in a large sample of gender and racially/ethnically diverse college students. Participants included a racially and ethnically diverse sample of men and women from two universities. I first conducted exploratory factory analysis (EFA) to examine the factor structure of the EDE-Q, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to verify the factor structure in order to establish the configural model. Next, I explored measurement invariance with the configural model by gender and race/ethnicity. CFA supported a three-factor, 10-item measure reflecting dietary restraint, preoccupation and eating concern, and shape/weight overvaluation. This measure achieved strict invariance by gender and race/ethnicity. Women, relative to men, reported higher scores for shape/weight overvaluation and preoccupation and eating concern. Significant differences among racial and ethnic groups were found among shape/weight overvaluation in which Hispanic individuals endorsed the highest scores. The three-factor, 10-item measure is a brief, valid, and reliable measure of eating disorder psychopathology for US college students. Routine screening of eating disorders among college campuses using this modified measure may promote early identification of eating disorders among young adults.

Controlled Subject

Psychometrics;Eating disorders;Race relations;Gender identity

Disciplines

Psychology

File Format

pdf

File Size

1620 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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