The eating attitudes test and the eating disorders inventory in four Bulgarian clinical and nonclinical samples

OBJECTIVE: As part of the International Collaborative Study of Eating Disorders in Adolescence, with sites in West and East Berlin, Zurich, and Sofia, eating attitudes and disorders were studied in four Bulgarian samples. METHOD: The Eating Attitude Test (EAT) and the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) were used in this study. Besides a clinical group of anorectic patients, students attending either a special secondary school, a standard secondary school, or a sports school participated in this study. RESULTS: Findings revealed excellent discriminant validity of the EAT total score and the three subscales. This also applied to four out of eight subscales of the EDI. Discriminant validity was less satisfactory in three further scales and entirely missing for Maturity Fears. DISCUSSION: The findings are discussed in a transcultural perspective.