Eating attitudes test in Arabic: Psychometric features and normative data

Objectives: The study presents the psychometric properties and normative da ta for an Arabic translation of the Eating Attitudes Test. Methods: A stratified cluster sampling method was used to select female stu dents from Grades 7-12 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Subjects completed the Eati ng Attitudes Test and their heights and weights were measured. The total sa mple size was 1271 students, 67.8% of whom completed the questionnaire enou gh to perform a factor analysis. Results: The Eating Attitudes Test positive rate was 24.6% and more Eating Attitudes Test positive cases had longer contact with the West and were abl e to speak a Western language. The overall internal consistency of the ques tionnaire was good. Seven factors were extracted but six of them were inter pretable accounting for 47.2% of the total variance, Weight measures had a positive correlation to the dieting factor but a negative correlation to th e social pressure to eat factor. Conclusion: Like other translations, the Eating Attitudes Test in Arabic yi elded a high false positive rate but using weight measurements or a higher cut-off point might be helpful in improving the sensitivity of the test.