OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to validate the Catalan version of the SCOFF questionnaire with a community sample of adolescents. METHOD: This study used a community sample of 954 participants (475 girls and 479 boys; aged between 10.9 and 17.3 years and from the city of Barcelona) and a risk group of 78 participants (35 men and 43 women; derived from the community sample) that have exceeded > or =95 percentile in at least two of the three scales of the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (EDI-2): Drive for Thinness, Bulimia, and Body Dissatisfaction. RESULTS: There were significant differences in total SCOFF scores across gender and school grades. The SCOFF best cutoff point was 2 (sensitivity=73.08%; specificity=77.74%). Concurrent validity with the EDI-2 varied between low and moderate. The reliability of the SCOFF questionnaire was moderate. Exploratory factor analysis of the SCOFF questionnaire showed a two-factor structure for the total sample and for girls, and one factor for boys. CONCLUSION: The best cutoff point for this community sample is 2. The data suggest that the SCOFF questionnaire could be a useful screening questionnaire to enable the detection of groups possibly at risk for eating disorders among adolescent Spanish community samples.
Anorexia Nervosa/diagnosis , Bulimia/diagnosis , Cross-Cultural Comparison , Language , Personality Inventory/statistics & numerical data , Adolescent , Anorexia Nervosa/epidemiology , Anorexia Nervosa/psychology , Body Image , Bulimia/epidemiology , Bulimia/psychology , Child , Cross-Sectional Studies , Early Diagnosis , Female , Humans , Male , Psychometrics/statistics & numerical data , Reproducibility of Results , Spain
Se presenta un sistema de codificación que permite analizar los problemas libremente expresados por los adolescentes según cuatro categorías (naturaleza, contenido, participantes y contexto), que pueden combinarse entre sí. Los índices de fiabilidad, Kappa de Cohen, son adecuados. Se han identificado los problemas de 1.362 adolescentes de entre 12 y 16 años, que cursan Enseñanza Secundaria Obligatoria, y se ha analizado su frecuencia, según sexo. La combinación de las cuatro categorías indica que el 50% de problemas se reducen a tres tipos básicos: problemas interpersonales de relación con compañeros, que afectan mayoritariamente a chicas; problemas de rendimiento escolar, cuyo protagonista es el propio individuo, que afectan preferentemente a chicos; y problemas ajenos, relativos a muertes de familiares, que preocupan por igual a ambos sexos. Se argumenta que el estudio de las relaciones entre life events y salud mental debe contemplarse desde una perspectiva multiaxial, como la propuesta en este trabajo (AU)
This study presents a system of classification which allows to analyze the problems expressed by adolescents in four combinable categories (nature of problem, content, participants and context). Cohens Kappa offers adequate reliability indexes. This system was applied to the problems expressed by 1362 Secondary School adolescents ranging in age from 12 to 16, and the frequency of these problems was analyzed according to gender. The combination of the four categories indicates that 50% of the problems explained by the sample are: a) interpersonal problems with peers, which mainly affect girls; b) school achievement problems, mainly affecting boys; and c) problems of others, principally related to relativess death and which affect both girls and boys. From the results obtained it is advisable to analyze the relationship between life-events and mental health from a multiaxial perspective (AU)
Humans , Male , Female , Adolescent , Conflict, Psychological , Underachievement , Interpersonal Relations , Family Conflict
