Intuitive Eating Scale-2 : psychometric properties and clinical norms among individuals seeking treatment for an eating disorder in private practice

Katie M. Babbott, Deborah Mitchison, Chris Basten, Chris Thornton, Phillipa Hay, Sue Byrne, Mandy Goldstein, Gabriella Heruc, Bert van der Werf, Nathan S. Consedine, Marion Roberts

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose Intuitive Eating (IE) is an approach to eating designed to facilitate a positive relationship with food. Its use in clinical settings and in the community is rapidly growing in popularity. The Intuitive Eating Scale 2 (IES-2) is a widely used measure that indexes intuitive eating motivations and behaviour, however evidence of its validity in populations with clinical eating disorders remains scarce. The objective of the proposed study was thus to evaluate the factor structure of the IES-2 in a large sample of individuals seeking treatment for eating disorders in private practice. Methods Data collected from 569 women and men aged 12–68 years seeking treatment for an eating disorder in one of eight specialist private outpatient eating disorder clinics were examined using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Relationships between IES-2 scores and measures of psychopathology were also examined. Results Results were relatively consistent with the purported four-factor structure of the IES-2. The measure displayed strong construct validity and good internal consistency. Scores on the IES-2 were inversely associated with scores of depression, anxiety, and disordered eating, providing evidence for divergent validity of the measure. Clinical norms are provided for anorexia nervosa (AN) spectrum disorders and bulimia nervosa (BN) spectrum disorders, as well as for the clinical sample as a whole. Conclusion Findings suggest that the IES-2 may be an appropriate measure for evaluating behaviours relating to IE in community outpatient eating disorder settings, and provide further evidence for the association between IE and positive health outcomes. Level of evidence III, evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case–control analytic studies.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages13
JournalEating and Weight Disorders
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print (In Press) - 2021

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Intuitive Eating Scale-2 : psychometric properties and clinical norms among individuals seeking treatment for an eating disorder in private practice'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this