Reliability and validity of the child version of the Eating Disorder Examination: a preliminary investigation.

OBJECTIVE

The Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) is a reliable and valid semistructured interview that measures the specific psychopathology of anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa. The current study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the child adaptation of the EDE (ChEDE 12.0).

METHOD: The ChEDE was administered to 15 children with AN, 15 children with other clinical eating disturbances, and two groups of 15 age-matched controls. The groups were compared using a two-sample matched groups design.

RESULTS

Alpha coefficients for each of the ChEDE subscales indicated a high degree of internal consistency, and interrater reliability was found to be high (r = .91 to r = 1.00). The subscale scores of the AN group were significantly higher than those of the other groups, whereas the other eating disturbance group did not differ from its control group.

DISCUSSION: The ChEDE differentiates children with AN from children with other forms of clinical eating disturbance and control children.