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The children’s eating attitudes test: French validation of a short version

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Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Disordered eating attitudes and behaviors (DEAB) in childhood have been prospectively associated with eating disorders and obesity in adolescence. Therefore, evaluating DEAB in children with a reliable, sensitive and well-adapted scale is very important. The Children’s Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT) is one of the most popular measuring tools for DEAB in children, but no French version is available. Moreover, while completion time is an important factor to be considered when working with children, only one recent study proposed a shorter version of the ChEAT. Taking the previous works of Murphy and colleagues (2019) as a starting point, the current study aimed to provide the first French-speaking validated 14-item short version of the ChEAT.

Methods

A sample of 1092 boys and girls aged between 8 and 12 years old were recruited in two urban areas in the province of Quebec, Canada. They completed the ChEAT, and their height and weight were measured at school. Factorial structure and internal consistency were assessed.

Results

After the initial factorial analysis, two “vomiting (or purging)” items were yielded as problematic and were thus removed from the analysis. The remaining 12 items provided a good fit to the data and a good internal consistency. Moreover, the factorial structure was proved to be invariant across sexes.

Conclusion

This study is the first to provide a French assessment of DEAB in elementary school children. The French short version of the ChEAT provided a quick and reliable assessment for DEAB with non-clinical children population and could be used as a screening tool, even though no cut-off was established yet.

Level of evidence

Cross-sectional, descriptive study, Level V.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Hélène Paradis for statistical analysis guidance. This study was funded by Fonds de Recherche du Québec, Santé.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Pavillon Félix-Antoine-Savard, Laval University, 2325, rue des Bibliothèques, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Maxime Legendre, Marilou Côté & Catherine Bégin

  2. Psychology and Psychoeducation Department, Pavillon Campus de Saint-Jérôme, Université du Québec en Outaouais, 5, rue St-Joseph, St-Jérôme, QC, J7Z 0B7, Canada

    Annie Aimé

  3. Department of Human and Social Sciences, Université du Québec À Chicoutimi, 555, boul. de l’université, Chicoutimi, QC, G7H 2BI, Canada

    Marie-Christine Brault

  4. Department of Health Sciences, Université du Québec À Chicoutimi, 555, boul. de l’université, Chicoutimi, QC, G7H 2BI, Canada

    Jacinthe Dion

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  1. Maxime Legendre
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Correspondence to Catherine Bégin.

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The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. Maxime Legendre received grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research during this study. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of Canada and received approval from the university’s institutional review board.

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Legendre, M., Côté, M., Aimé, A. et al. The children’s eating attitudes test: French validation of a short version. Eat Weight Disord 26, 2749–2756 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-021-01158-9

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