Reliability and Validation of the Children’s Eating AttitudesTest among 10- to 14-Year-Old School Children in Turkey / Confiabilidad y Validación de la Prueba de Actitudes Alimentarias de los Niños entre Escolares de 10 a 14 Años en Turquía

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Eating disorders (ED) onset occurs com-monly during adolescence and this is a very critical period oflife in the context of developmental perspectives because ad-equate nutrition is necessary for optimal growth and devel-opment. Nutritional disorders can be harmful and cause ex-treme and potentially permanent physical and psychologicalconsequences. Therefore, defining the eating disorder in itsearly stages is important. Objective: The goal of this study was to translate theChildren’s Eating Attitude Test (CHEAT) into Turkish and es-tablish its validity and reliability among Turkish schoolchil-dren. Methods: The study was conducted on students from twoprivate and two public primary schools. After delivering invi-tations to suitable classes, informed consents that had beenwritten by participants and parents were collected. Results: The research comprised 352 children betweenthe ages of 10 and 14, including 222 females and 130 boys.Minimum factor loading is 0.597 and total percentage of ex-plained variance is 58.04 The CFA supported these findings,since the 15-item scale had a greater goodness-of-fit and ex-ploratory component analysis generated four factors. Conclusion: Analysis of data showed that the ChEAT scaleis a valid and reliable measurement tool available in Turkey. Itis thought that the ChEAT scale will contribute to studies oneating disorders in children aged between 10-14 years.(AU)