Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr;54(4):569-577.
doi: 10.1002/eat.23449. Epub 2020 Dec 17.

A brief session-by-session measure of eating disorder psychopathology for children and adolescents: Development and psychometric properties of the Eating Disorder-15 for Youth (ED-15-Y)

Erin C Accurso  1 , Glenn Waller  2
Affiliations

A brief session-by-session measure of eating disorder psychopathology for children and adolescents: Development and psychometric properties of the Eating Disorder-15 for Youth (ED-15-Y)

Erin C Accurso et al. Int J Eat Disord. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Objective: Despite evidence supporting the use of measures to track ongoing progress and outcome in treatment, there is a relative absence of measures that are appropriate for this purpose in youth with eating disorders. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Eating Disorder-15 for Youth (ED-15-Y) scale, including its ability to detect short-term change in symptomatology.

Method: Youth (N = 203) ages 8-18 years completed self-report questionnaires and semi-structured diagnostic interviews upon initial presentation for an outpatient eating disorders assessment at an academic medical center.

Results: The ED-15-Y demonstrated excellent reliability (internal consistency, split-half reliability) and high sensitivity to change early in treatment (change from sessions 1 to 8, adjusting for baseline score). Further, these data demonstrate that the ED-15-Y has excellent convergent validity, being highly correlated with a well-tested, longer measure of eating disorders psychopathology-the Eating Disorders Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q). These data also support good discriminant and concurrent validity, differentiating between youth without an eating disorder or with ARFID and youth with eating disorders involving weight and shape concerns (e.g., anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa).

Discussion: The ED-15-Y may be a useful tool to briefly assess eating disorder psychopathology in youth as young as 8 years old. Its sensitivity to change very early in treatment suggests that it has the potential to be used as a routine outcome measure in the context of treatment.

Keywords: assessment; children and adolescents; eating disorder psychopathology; psychometrics; routine outcome monitoring; youth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors have no conflict to declare.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
ED-15-Y scores across eating disorder diagnoses with mean (SD). Abbreviations: Eating disorder (ED), Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), Anorexia nervosa (AN), Bulimia nervosa (BN), Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (OSFED).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Accurso EC, Fitzsimmons-Craft EE, Ciao AC, & Le Grange D (2015). From efficacy to effectiveness: Comparing outcomes for youth with anorexia nervosa treated in research trials versus clinical care. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 65, 36–41. 10.1016/j.brat.2014.12.009 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Accurso EC, Le Grange D, & Graham AK (2020). Attitudes towards family-based treatment impact therapists’ intent to change their therapeutic practice for adolescent anorexia nervosa. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 305. 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00305 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Athay MM, Riemer M, & Bickman L (2012). The Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS): Psychometric evaluation and discrepancies among youth, caregiver, and clinician ratings over time. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 39, 13–29. 10.1007/s10488-012-0403-2 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Balantekin KN, Hayes JF, Sheinbein DH, Kolko RP, Stein RI, Saelens BE, … & Epstein LH (2017). Patterns of eating disorder pathology are associated with weight change in family-based behavioral obesity treatment. Obesity, 25, 2115–2122. 10.1002/oby.22028 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berg KC, Peterson CB, Frazier P, & Crow SJ (2011). Convergence of scores on the interview and questionnaire versions of the Eating Disorder Examination: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Assessment, 23, 714–724. https://doi/10.1037/a0023246 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types