Culture and research instruments: the performance of the eating attitude test questionnaire in Arabic culture

ABSTRACT

The paper assesses the cross-cultural validity of the eating attitude test questionnaire in the Arabic culture. The author reports her findings from two studies conducted on Arab female students where the EAT was the main screening instrument for eating morbidity in this culture. The EAT performed reasonably well in this population with high degree of sensitivity and specificity. The paper discusses as well the results of a confirmatory factor analysis of the EAT carried out by the author on a sample of Egyptian school girls. The analysis yielded three factor structure in conformity with the factor structure reported by the authors of the questionnaire the themselves. The dieting factor attracted the highest reliability but doubts were raised in connection to the bulimia factor. The results offered some support for the continued use of the EAT in future eating disorders research in this part of the world, particularly for some aspects of eating pathology, namely dieting and concerns about weight and shape