Attitudes towards change in eating disorders (ACTA). Development and psychometric properties
Keywords:
Eating disorders, Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia nervosa, Motivational enhancement therapy, Questionnaire validation, Motivation assessment, Attitude towards change, ACTAAbstract
Introduction. The aim of the present study was the development of a self-reported instrument in Spanish to assess attitudes towards change in eating disorders (AC TA ) and to analyze its reliability and validity.
Methods. The questionnaire was elaborated following the transtheoretical approach of stages of changes, proposed by Prochaska and DiClemente and using the clinical records systematically registered regarding patients cognitions, behaviors and emotions related to the disorder. It was administered to 186 patients who where diagnosed an eating disorder according DSM-IV criteria. Subsequently, the process of refinement and validation of the scale was initiated. Moreover, a set of self-reported instruments was used to assess the eating disorder psychopathology: the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), the Bulimic Investigatory Test Edinburgh (BITE), the Eating Disorders Inve n t o ry (EDI-2) and the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ).
Results. The final version consisted of 59 items divided into six subscales: precontemplation, contemplation, determination, action, maintenance and relapse. All of them showed an internal consistency over 0.70 which corresponded to the six factor obtained after the factorial analysis. Furthermore, the subscales were logically correlated to each other and to the questionnaires measuring eating psychopathology.
Conclusions. The present results suggest that the ACTA be an easily administered, reliable and valid questionnaire, which could be used withinthe motivational approach. This could provide interesting information regarding the knowledge of the therapeutical process.
