The SCOFF-c: psychometric properties of the Catalan version in a Spanish adolescent sample.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to validate the Catalan version of the SCOFF questionnaire with a community sample of adolescents.

METHOD

This study used a community sample of 954 participants (475 girls and 479 boys; aged between 10.9 and 17.3 years and from the city of Barcelona) and a risk group of 78 participants (35 men and 43 women; derived from the community sample) that have exceeded > or =95 percentile in at least two of the three scales of the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (EDI-2): Drive for Thinness, Bulimia, and Body Dissatisfaction.

RESULTS

There were significant differences in total SCOFF scores across gender and school grades. The SCOFF best cutoff point was 2 (sensitivity=73.08%; specificity=77.74%). Concurrent validity with the EDI-2 varied between low and moderate. The reliability of the SCOFF questionnaire was moderate. Exploratory factor analysis of the SCOFF questionnaire showed a two-factor structure for the total sample and for girls, and one factor for boys.

CONCLUSION

The best cutoff point for this community sample is 2. The data suggest that the SCOFF questionnaire could be a useful screening questionnaire to enable the detection of groups possibly at risk for eating disorders among adolescent Spanish community samples.