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)

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.