Additional Validation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-3 (MMPI-3) Eating Concerns Scale

Maladaptive eating behaviors are typically associated with significant impairment in psychological functioning more broadly. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) family of instruments has traditionally been the most frequently used psychological assessment of psychopathology by cli...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Assessment (Odessa, Fla.) Fla.), 2024-07, Vol.31 (5), p.1114-1123
Main Authors: Sutphin, Terran M. S., Hicks, Adam D., Marek, Ryan J., Gorman, Kimberly S., McCord, David M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Feeding and Eating Disorders - diagnosis
Feeding and Eating Disorders - psychology
Feeding Behavior - psychology
Female
Humans
Male
MMPI
Psychometrics
Reproducibility of Results
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Maladaptive eating behaviors are typically associated with significant impairment in psychological functioning more broadly. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) family of instruments has traditionally been the most frequently used psychological assessment of psychopathology by clinical psychologists. The most recent version, the MMPI-3, features a new Eating Concerns (EAT) scale that screens for the presence of problematic eating behaviors. The goals of the current study were (a) to independently replicate validity correlations reported from the college sample during EAT scale development, (b) to evaluate the utility of EAT scale item-level correlations with other substantive MMPI-3 scales, and (c) to evaluate the ability of the EAT items to predict specific frequency counts of dysfunctional eating behaviors. The current study examined the MMPI-3 assessment of dysfunctional eating behaviors among 188 undergraduate participants. Results indicated that the EAT scale is meaningfully associated with core symptom dimensions of maladaptive eating, including binging, vomiting, restricting, and concerns about weight and shape. In addition, this study identified meaningfully distinct patterns of correlations with personality and psychopathology constructs, and specific behavioral frequencies, across the five individual EAT scale items. These results contribute to the enhanced utility of this important screening scale in clinical settings.
ISSN:1073-1911
1552-3489
DOI:10.1177/10731911231207111