Children’s Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT)

Instructions:

Please pick the word that best applies to the statement below

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very Often Always
I am scared about being overweight 0 0 0 1 2 3
I stay away from eating when I am hungry 0 0 0 1 2 3
I think about food a lot of the time 0 0 0 1 2 3
I have gone on eating binges 0 0 0 1 2 3
I cut my food into small pieces 0 0 0 1 2 3
I am aware of the calorie content in foods 0 0 0 1 2 3
I try to stay away from foods such as breads 0 0 0 1 2 3
I feel that others would like me to eat more 0 0 0 1 2 3
I vomit after I have eaten 0 0 0 1 2 3
I feel very guilty after eating 0 0 0 1 2 3
I think a lot about wanting to be thinner 0 0 0 1 2 3
I think about burning up calories when I exercise 0 0 0 1 2 3
Other people think I’m too thin 0 0 0 1 2 3
I think a lot about having fat on my body 0 0 0 1 2 3
I take longer than others to eat my meals 0 0 0 1 2 3
I stay away from foods with sugar in them 0 0 0 1 2 3
I eat diet foods 0 0 0 1 2 3
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very Often Always
I think that food controls my life 0 0 0 1 2 3
I can show self control around food 0 0 0 1 2 3
I feel that others pressure me to eat 0 0 0 1 2 3
I give too much time and thought to food 0 0 0 1 2 3
I feel uncomfortable after eating sweets 0 0 0 1 2 3
I have been dieting 0 0 0 1 2 3
I like my stomach to be empty 0 0 0 1 2 3
I enjoy trying new, rich foods 3 2 1 0 0 0
I have the urge to vomit after eating 0 0 0 1 2 3

Description

The Children’s Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT) is a 26 item questionnaire used to assess eating attitudes and disordered eating behaviours in children. It is a modified version of the Eating Attitudes Test (Garner & Garfinkle, 1979). It is administered by orally reading items to the child and is intended to be administered to children aged 8 – 15. The ChEAT can be utilised to screen for children at risk of developing an eating disorder and can be used as part of a more comprehensive diagnostic assessment.

Validity and Reliability

The ChEAT was developed by Maloney and colleagues (1988, 1989) in a sample of 318 children in the community. Various studies have demonstrated adequate reliability and validity of the ChEAT (Maloney et al., 1988; Maloney et al., 1989; Smolak & Levine, 1994). Smolak and Levine (1994) administered the ChEAT to 308 middle school girls and found that the scale yielded four factors; dieting, restricting and purging, food preoccupation and oral control.

Interpretation

Items are summed to obtain a total score. A cut-off score of 20 more indicates the presence of disturbed eating patterns and highlights the need for further assessment (Garner et l., 1982). A total score of 20 corresponds to an average score of 0.77. Average scores between 0 and 3 are computed by dividing the raw score by the number of questions, and are presented for each of the four subscales. Higher scores indicate increased symptom severity. Subscales are derived by summing the following items: Dieting: 1, 2, 6, 10,11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24 Restricting and Purging: 2, 7, 9,10, 17, 22, 23, 24, 26 Food Preoccupation: 3, 4, 18, 20, 21 Oral Control: 8, 13, 15, 20

Developer

Maloney, M. J., McGUIRE, J. B., & Daniels, S. R. (1988). Reliability testing of a children’s version of the Eating Attitude Test. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(5), 541-543. Maloney, M. J., McGuire, M., Daniels, S. R., & Specker, B. (1989). Dieting behavior and eating attitudes in children. Pediatrics, 84(3), 482-9.

Number Of Questions

26

References

Garner, D., Olmsted, M., Bohr, Y., & Garfinkel, P. (1982). The Eating Attitudes Test: Psychometric features. Psychological medicine, 12, 871-878.

Maloney, M. J., McGUIRE, J. B., & Daniels, S. R. (1988). Reliability testing of a children’s version of the Eating Attitude Test. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(5), 541-543.

Maloney, M. J., McGuire, M., Daniels, S. R., & Specker, B. (1989). Dieting behavior and eating attitudes in children. Pediatrics, 84(3), 482-9.

Smolak, L., & Levine, M. P. (1994). Psychometric properties of the children’s eating attitudes test. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 16(3), 275-282.

This content is licensed under a CC-BY license. The CC-BY licenses grant rights of use the scales in your studies (the measurement instrument and its documentation), but do not replace copyright. This remains with the copyright holder, and you have to cite us as the source.

Mohammed Looti, PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES (2023) Children’s Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT). Retrieved from https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/childrens-eating-attitudes-test-cheat/. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31575.96163

Related terms:

  1. Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40)
  2. Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26)
  3. Behaviors of Eating and Activity for Children’s Health: Evaluation System (BEACHES)
  4. Sexual Attitudes Scale and Brief Sexual Attitudes Scale
  5. Binge Eating Scale (BES)
  6. Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire (EDBQ)
  7. Eating Disorder Diagnostic Interview
  8. Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale – DSM-5 Version
  9. Disordered Eating Attitude Scale (DEAS)
  10. Eating Disorder