The Italian from of the short, 26-item Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) has been administered to 1277 Roman high-school students, mostly females, as a screening device. Ninety-five students with a total score > 20 and 40 students with a low score, were randomly selected, interviewed and diagnosed. The EAT-26 proved to be more sensitive to the presence of an eating disorder than to a specific clinical entity. Item analysis performed on the EAT-26 variables showed satisfactory reliability coefficients. Factor analysis using an oblique rotation was similar to that obtained by Garner et al. (1). Factor analysis with an orthogonal rotation (Cattell's screen test) identified five factors. Results suggested that the EAT-26 isolates cases at risk of clinical spectrum eating disorders.

No abstract

Ballet dancers are frequently regarded as having a higher risk of developing eating disorders (ED). This paper describes the eating habits and prevalence of ED in a group of female students from a dance academy in Rome, Italy. Participants were assessed with an array of measures conventionally employed (usually singly) in epidemiological studies of ED, namely: an anthropometrical-nutritional evaluation, the EAT, EDI, and BUT questionnaires, and the EDE interview. The 160 students who agreed to participate were evaluated anthropometrically, nutritionally and psychometrically and 83 underwent the EDE structured interview. Their calorie intake was insufficient in all age groups in terms of the nutritional standards required by their daily physical activity. EAT, EDI and BUT enhanced concerns about dieting, food intake control and body image. The significance of the correlations between calorie intake and the EAT Dieting and the EDI Perfectionism and Interceptive Awareness scores increased in function of age. Food, weight and body image concerns increased with age and length of time in the ballet environment The reduced calorie intake was not necessarily linked to the presence of psychopathological signs.

Obtained self and ideal-self protocols on the Adjective Check List for 100 American Air Force officers and 95 Italian young men who were applying for a nation-wide precollege military training school. Comparison of endorsement rates for the 300 items in the ACL detected 44 that showed appreciable and similar shifts in both samples. On 31 endorsement increased and on 13 it decreased. The real-self protocols then were scored, +1 each time a positive item was checked and -1 for each endorsement of a negative item. Self-ideal congruence was measured by the phi correlation between the two protocols from each person. Scores on the new scale correlated .63 with phi in the American and -46 in the Italian samples. Ratings and adjectival descriptions by observers were available for the American sample. Their relationship to scores on the new scale suggested it to be a measure of social poise, ambition, and initiative more than of personal soundness or self-insight.

No abstract