Assessing eating disorder thoughts and behaviors: The development and preliminary evaluation of two questionnaires

This paper describes the development of two measures. The first is designed to assess eating disorder-related automatic thoughts; the second is designed to assess a wide range of eating disorder-related behaviors. Principal components analysis identified three dimensions of thoughts: positive thoughts about eating, negative thoughts about eating, and permissive thoughts. Principal components analysis also identified six dimensions of behavior related to: shape and weight, bingeing, dieting, food, eating, and overeating. Both measures possess promising psychometric properties, including good construct and criterion-related validity. Both successfully discriminated eating disorder patients from dieting and non-dieting groups. The two measures may be useful additions to those currently available to researchers (and clinicians) interested in eating disorders.