Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences

Rutt, Coleman/Measures Related to Body Image

The Evaluation of a Measurement

Model for the Body Image
Questionnaire and the Eating Attitudes
Test in a Hispanic Population
Candace D. Rutt
Karen J. Coleman
University of Texas at El Paso

The factor structures of the Body Image Questionnaire (BIQ) and the Eating Attitudes
Test (EAT) were examined with confirmatory factor analyses. The sample for the BIQ consisted of 255 Hispanic men and women, and the sample for the EAT consisted of 153 Hispanic women living on the U.S./Mxico border. The final factor structures for the BIQ
and the EAT differed from the published BIQ and EAT factor structures found for young
Caucasian adults. A four-factor solution (midtorso, extremities, sex organs, and face)
using Hispanic men and women resulted in a good fit for the BIQ. A five-factor solution
(fear of fat, preoccupation with food, others opinions, dieting, and slow eating) using
Hispanic women resulted in a moderate fit for the EAT. The modified BIQ can be used
reliably to test constructs related to body image and eating behavior among Hispanics
living on the U.S./Mxico border. However, the original three-factor EAT structure
reported in Caucasian women does not seem to be a reliable measure of attitudes toward
eating for Hispanic women living on the U.S./Mxico border. Although a five-factor EAT
structure was more reliable for assessing eating attitudes in these women, it is recommended that a new instrument be developed and tailored to young Hispanic women.

In the United States, the popular media and advertising have strong effects
on what is considered beautiful (Garner & Garfinkel, 1979). Advertising is a
multibillion dollar industry in America, and most Americans are exposed to
AUTHORS NOTE: This study was funded by psychology department funds. The authors
would like to thank Dr. Kimberly Schneider for reviewing the manuscript. In addition, we would
like to thank all of the undergraduate research assistants who helped in data collection and entry:
Jennifer Avila, Ana Laura Garcia, Anne Lytle, Sharon Plunk, Rebecca Sartuche, and Erika
Urbina. Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to Candace D. Rutt, Psychology
Department, 500 W. University Avenue, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 799680553; phone: (915) 747-6561; fax: (915) 747-6553; e-mail: [email protected].
Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 23 No. 2, May 2001 153-170
2001 Sage Publications, Inc.

153

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an average of 1,500 television commercials a day (Kilbourne, 1994). Adults

are not the only targets of media advertising as children and adolescents
spend more time watching television than any other activity with the exception of sleeping (R. J. Harris, 1994). Much of the advertising content of television, radio, and print media concerns topics related to majority societal ideals of body image. For women, the ideal is beautiful and, above all else,
thin, whereas men are encouraged to be strong and muscular (Garner &
Garfinkel, 1979; Kilbourne, 1994; Silverstein, Perdue, Peterson, & Kellu,
1986). As an illustration of this point, Anderson and DiDomencio (1992)
reported that womens magazines have 10.5 times the number of articles and
advertisements on dieting as mens magazines.
With increasing numbers of young people having disturbed body images
and eating disorders, and being overweight and obese (U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, 1998), it is crucial to assess and understand the
concept of ideal body image and how it is related to health behaviors such as
eating and exercise (Dying to Be Thin, 1999; Garner, Garner, & Van
Egeren, 1992; Guinn, Semper, & Jorgensen, 1997; M. B. Harris & Koehler,
1992). Body image can be conceptualized as how individuals evaluate their
physical self (Berscheid, Walster, & Bohrnstedt, 1973b). Disturbed body
image has been defined as increased weight preoccupation, shape concern,
and appearance-related schema (Tantleff-Dunn & Thompson, 1998). Several
researchers (Abood & Chandler, 1997; Attie & Brooks-Gunn, 1989; StreigelMoore, Silberstein, Frensch, & Rodin, 1989) have also suggested that dissatisfaction with ones body is a causal influence on disturbed eating. Gleaves,
Williamson, Eberenz, and Barker (1995) reported that preference for thinness had an effect on body dissatisfaction, regardless of the individuals
actual body size. They also concluded that body dissatisfaction had a direct
effect on eating disturbance. Not only has current research suggested that a
disturbed body image is one of the precursors of eating disorders, it can be
used to predict future severity of eating disorders (Attie & Brooks-Gunn,
1989; Button, 1986; Freeman, Beach, Davis, & Solyom, 1985; Leon, Fullerson,
Perry, & Cudeck, 1993; Rosen, 1992; Thompson, Coovert, Richards, Johnson, & Cattarin, 1995).
College-aged people may be particularly vulnerable to the body image
messages portrayed in popular media sources. Levine and Smolak (1996)
reported that television and magazines are important influences on college
women, one of the most at-risk groups for the development of disturbed body
image and eating disorders (Collins, Kreisberg, Pertschuk, & Fager, 1982;
Pyle, Holvorson, Neuman, & Mitchell, 1986; Thompson & Schwartz, 1982).
Murray, Touyz, and Beumont (1995) found that noneating disordered females
responded in the same way to the media as did women with eating disorders.

Rutt, Coleman/Measures Related to Body Image

155

Mintz and Betz (1988) have reported that only 33% of women in college have
eating habits that could be classified as normal, with an alarming 61% possessing an eating disturbance. In a study at Michigan State, Krupa (U.S.
House, 1990) reported that half the women surveyed had taken phenylpropanolamine (PPA), one of the only Food and Drug Administration
(FDA-) approved nonprescription diet drugs, and 27% had reported taking
the drug in the past 12 months. Some of the women (9%) who reported using
PPA also thought that they were underweight. Other authors reported that
college womens desire to lose weight was related to academic self-rankings,
social as well as psychological well-being, and disturbed eating patterns
(Hesse-Biber, Clayton-Matthews, & Downey, 1986).
Although much of the research mentioned previously was relevant to Caucasian, upper/middle-class samples, Snow and Harris (1989) reported that
excessive weight concern and disordered eating patterns have been reported
in other races/ethnicities. It has been found that culture plays an integral part
in the development of eating disorders (Pate, Pumareiga, Hester, & Garner,
1992). Body image research has been conducted within Native American,
Asian American, Hispanic, and African American communities (Altabe,
1998; Cash & Henry, 1995; Felts, Parrillo, Chenier, & Dunn, 1996; Fitzgibbon,
et al., 1998; Guinn et al., 1997; M. B. Harris & Koehler, 1992; Lopez, Blix, &
Blix, 1995; Ogden & Elder, 1998; Robinson et al., 1996; Story, French,
Resnick, & Blum, 1995). Most of the work done in this area has focused on
African American women (for a review, see Flynn & Fitzgibbon, 1998).
Many researchers who have looked at African Americans have found lower
levels of eating disturbances and body dissatisfaction than those found in Caucasian populations (Abood & Chandler, 1997; Abood & Mason, 1997). African Americans also exhibit lower levels of anorexia and bulimia (Gray, Ford,
& Kelly, 1987; Hsu, 1987). However, the more African Americans adopt the
Caucasian culture, the more disturbed eating patterns they report (Abrams,
Allen, & Gray, 1993; Anderson & Hay, 1985).
The results of comparisons between Hispanics and other groups have
shown an inconsistent relationship. Robinson et al. (1996) found that Hispanic girls reported significantly greater body dissatisfaction than either
Asian or African American girls, with even the leanest Hispanic girls reporting dissatisfaction with their bodies. On the other hand, some researchers
have found that Hispanics report less body dissatisfaction than Caucasians
but more body dissatisfaction than African Americans (Altabe, 1998; Felts
et al., 1996). Finally, Cash and Henry (1995) found that Hispanics had the
same amount of body dissatisfaction as Caucasians and more body dissatisfaction than African Americans. According to findings from the Youth Risk
Behavior Survey (YRBS) (1996), 26.0% of Caucasians reported that they

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Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences

were too fat as compared with 23.9% of Hispanics and 17.2% of African
Americans (Felts et al., 1996). Among those who perceived themselves as
too fat, 77.3% of Caucasians, 73.8% of Hispanics, and 72.9% of Blacks
reported trying to lose weight. The inconsistencies reported in this literature
may be due to the use of measures that were not valid and/or reliable for the
assessment of body image in minority populations (Abood & Mason, 1997).
There are several tools currently available to assess body image and disordered eating, including the Body Image Questionnaire (BIQ) and the Eating
Attitudes Test (EAT). The BIQ is one of the most comprehensive assessment
tools available for body image. The BIQ asks people to rate 25 different parts
of their body on a scale ranging from very satisfied to very dissatisfied and
provides an assessment of body image as a whole and in separate dimensions.
It was originally developed by Berscheid, Walster, and Bohrnstedt (1973a)
for Psychology Today. In the original study, more than 60,000 Psychology
Today subscribers responded to the questionnaire, 2,013 of whom were used
in the analysis. One of the limitations of this study was that the sample
underrepresented minorities. Additionally, the ethnicity item only gave the
selections of Caucasian, Negro, Oriental, or Other. Therefore, the authors
were not able to examine any potential differences in the body images of Hispanics and other respondents.
The EAT is one of the most widely used measures for assessing eating disturbance. It was originally a 40-item scale created by Garner and Garfinkel
(1979) in which participants respond to such statements as Am terrified
about being overweight on a 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from never to
always. This scale was originally tested on two groups of anorexic and
nonclinical Caucasian women and was later revised into a 26-item version
with three factors (Garner, Olmstead, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982).
It is not clear whether the factor structures for the BIQ and the EAT can be
applied to young Hispanic adults. Hispanics have been the least-studied
minority with respect to body image (Altabe, 1998), possibly because there
are no ethnically tailored instruments available to assess body image and disordered eating in Hispanics. Therefore, this study had two goals. The first
was to determine the factor structure for the BIQ in a sample of Hispanic men
and women without eating disorders. Both men and women were included in
the analysis of the BIQ because the original measure was developed and
tested on both genders. The second goal was to examine the factor structure
of the EAT in a sample of noneating disordered Hispanic women. Only
women were used because the original measure was designed for and tested
exclusively with women.

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157

Method
Participants
Men and women from introductory psychology courses at the University
of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) received course credit for participation in the
study. Approval for the study was obtained from the Institutional Review
Board at UTEP, and all participants read and signed consent forms before
data collection began. A total of 255 Hispanic participants were used in the
analyses (153 women and 102 men). Those participants who scored 20 on
the EAT were not used for data analyses and were referred to the university
counseling center if they wanted to discuss their eating habits and options for
treatment.

Materials
Body Image Questionnaire (BIQ). This questionnaire has 25 body image
items (Berscheid et al., 1973a). The participants were instructed to rate their
satisfaction with different body parts on a 6-point scale ranging from 1
(extremely satisfied) to 6 (extremely dissatisfied). There are five proposed
factors in the original BIQ: (a) face (i.e., hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth,
voice, chin, complexion, overall appearance), (b) extremities (i.e., shoulders,
arms, hands, feet), (c) midtorso (i.e., abdomen, buttocks, hips, legs, and
ankles), (d) sex organs (i.e., size of sex organs, appearance of sex organs), and
(e) chest/breasts. The internal reliability of the BIQ is .84 with reliabilities for
the different factors ranging from .66 to .86 (Berscheid et al., 1973a). Over a
2-week period, the BIQ had a test-retest reliability of .90 (Stice & Shaw,
1994).
The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT). This questionnaire was designed to measure bulimia, oral control, and dieting behavior (Garner & Garfinkel, 1979).
Originally this questionnaire measured seven factors: (a) food preoccupation, (b) body image for thinness, (c) vomiting and laxative abuse, (d) dieting,
(e) slow eating, (f) clandestine eating, and (g) perceived social pressure to
gain weight. Researchers later created an abbreviated 26-item version of the
EAT (Garner et al., 1982) that was highly correlated (r = .98) with the original
measure. This new scale had three factors: (a) dieting, (b) bulimia and food
preoccupation, and (c) oral control.
The 26-item version was used in our study. The Dieting subscale measures
thinness preoccupation and avoidance of fattening foods. The Bulimia and

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Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences

Food Preoccupation subscale measures bulimic symptomology as well as

thoughts about food. The Oral Control subscale measures perceived pressure
from others to gain weight as well as eating self-control. This questionnaire
has been validated for use in nonclinical and anorexic Caucasian women. The
internal reliability for anorexic and normal individuals is .94 (Garner &
Garfinkel, 1979).
The Los Angeles Epidemiologic Catchment Area (LEACA) Survey for
Acculturation. This instrument has been designed to measure the acculturation of people with Mexican ancestry. Burnam, Telles, Hough, and Escobar
(1987) indicated that this questionnaire demonstrated high internal reliability
based on gender ( = .97), education level obtained ( = .94 to .96), and language used ( = .91 to .93). The LEACA survey assesses four dimensions of
acculturation: language preference, comprehension, and usage; ethnic identification and generation; language used in reading, writing, and cultural
exposure; and the amount of interaction within the participants dominant or
self-identified culture. For all questions except those about heritage (i.e.,
Where were your parents and grandparents born?), participants answer
along a continuum of 1 to 5, with 1 representing no acculturation (all Mexican influence) and 5 representing complete acculturation (all U.S. influence).
The Hollingshead Four Factor Index of Social Status. This questionnaire
was used to assess the social status of each participant based on educational
level, marital status, income, and occupation (Hollingshead, 1975). Only two
factors were used for socioeconomic status (SES): education and occupation.
The range of SES using this questionnaire is 8 to 66. For our study, SES values of 20 to 29 represented machine operators and semiskilled workers,
values of 30 to 39 represented skilled craftspeople and clerical and sales
workers, and values of 40 to 49 represented minor professionals and technical workers. The reliability and validity of this instrument have not been
established for any sample group. However, for this study, separate raters
were trained to use the Hollingshead instrument to calculate SES, and
interrater reliability was established for this data set at .90.
Height and weight. Height and weight were self-reported to the nearest
pound and inch, respectively. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated by first
converting weight from pounds to kilograms (pounds/2.2) and height from
inches to meters ((inches 2.54)/100) and then dividing weight in kilograms
by height in meters squared.

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159

Procedure
First, participants were instructed to read and sign a consent form. After
the participants signed the consent form, a packet of questionnaires was given
to them. The researcher gave the participants instructions to fill out the questionnaires (e.g., answer them in the order they received them and to make sure
to look on the back side of each page). After participants finished the questionnaires, they returned the completed forms to the researcher. The investigator checked to make sure the participant had completed all questions, gave
the participant credit, and allowed the participant to leave.

Factor Analyses
All data were screened for multicollinearity, missing values, skewness,
and kurtosis. None of the items were correlated above .85 (Kline, 1998) or
were missing more than 5% of all responses (Cohen & Cohen, 1983).
Listwise deletion was used for all missing data (Kline, 1998) to keep the
number of cases the same for each item in the analyses.
Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were conducted for the BIQ and
EAT using the software program EQS (Multivariate Software, Inc., Encino,
California). The initial input models followed the published factor structures
for each questionnaire. A CFA for the BIQ was done for the overall sample of
Hispanic participants. The BIQ fit moderately well for the overall sample.
Model modifications were done within EQS by examining the multivariate
Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test, item loadings, standard errors, the variance/
covariance matrix, and the residual matrix.
The originally proposed factor structure for the EAT had a poor fit for the
sample of Hispanic women. Therefore, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
was conducted using SPSS (Chicago, Illinois). There were seven factors with
eigenvalues larger than 1.00. On closer examination, five of these seven factors were theoretically plausible. Therefore, a five-factor EAT model (Fear of
Fat, Dieting, Others Opinions, Preoccupation With Food, and Slow Eating)
was tested in the sample with CFA using EQS. As with the BIQ CFA, model
modifications were done within EQS by examining the multivariate LM test,
item loadings, standard errors, the residual matrix, and the variance/
covariance matrix.
For all CFAs, model fit was evaluated using several indices. One was the
2:df ratio. A model was accepted as having good fit if the 2:df ratio was less
than 3:1 (Kline, 1998). Another fit index that was used was the Bentler-Bonet
Normed Fit Indices (NFI), which indicated the proportion of improvement of
the specified model over that of the null model (Kline, 1998). The Bentler-

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Table 1.

Demographic Characteristics of Participants in the Study

Women (n = 153)

Age (years)
Height (inches)
Weight (pounds)
2
BMI (kg/m )
Acculturation
SES

Men (n = 102)

SD

SD

20.9
63.16
129.97
22.96
3.04
27.68

7.2
2.67
24.96
4.01
0.75
11.74

21.4
69.12
170.36
25.29
3.02
27.58

4.9
3.01
36.91
5.31
0.70
12.01

NOTE: BMI = Body Mass Index. A BMI 25 is considered overweight. SES = socioeconomic status. The range is 8 to 66. Values of 20 to 29 represent machine operators and
semiskilled workers; 30 to 39 represent skilled craftspeople and clerical and sales workers; 40 to 49 represent minor professionals and technical workers. Acculturation varies
from 1 to 5, with 1 representing no acculturation (all Mexican influence) and 5 representing completely acculturated (all U.S. influence).

Bonet Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI) was also used; this measure is similar
to the NFI but corrects for model complexity. Finally, the Comparative Fit
Index (CFI), which is less affected by sample size, was used (Kline, 1998).
The NFI, NNFI, and CFI are given scores from 0 (poor fit) to 1 (perfect fit).
An acceptable model fit is .90 (Kline, 1998).

Results
Participants
1

Participants characteristics are shown in Table 1. Our sample was 100%

Hispanic, 60% female, around 21 years old, normal to slightly overweight
based on a BMI of 25 or greater as overweight (U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 1998), fairly acculturated, and of lower to middle
socioeconomic status.

BIQ Model for Hispanic Men and Women

The original BIQ factor structure proposed in the literature (Berscheid
et al., 1973a) is shown in Figure 1. Using our overall sample (men and
2
2
women), this model had a :df ratio of 2.20, ( (183) = 402.497, p < .001).
The NFI, NNFI, and CFI were .79, .85, and .87, respectively. Although the
2
ratio of :df was less than 3:1, the fit indices were not above the standard
.90 criteria, suggesting that this model may not have the best fit for the data.

Rutt, Coleman/Measures Related to Body Image

161

Item 17-Abdomen
Item 18-Buttocks

Mid-torso

Item 21-Hips
Item 22-Legs & Ankles

Item 13-Shoulders
Item 15-Arms

Extremities
Item 16-Hands
Item 23-Feet

Item 19-Size of sex organs

Sex Organs

Item 20-Apperance of sex organs

Item 3-Hair

Face

Item 4-Eyes

Item 5-Ears

Item 6-Nose

Item 7-Mouth

Item 8-Teeth

Item 9- Voice

Item 10-Chin

Item 11-Complexion

Item 12-Facial attractiveness

Chest/Breast

Item 14-Chest/Breast

Figure 1. Original factor structure for the Body Image Questionnaire (Berscheid,
Walster, & Bohrnstedt, 1973a). This factor structure was evaluated
using confirmatory factor analysis in EQS.

Modifications were conducted using the multivariate LM results, which

suggested that several items might load on factors other than those proposed
in the original model. Because we were interested in using CFA to determine
a distinct BIQ factor structure in a Hispanic sample, items were deleted from
the final BIQ model if they loaded ( .40) on two or more factors. The items
removed using this criterion were Items 9 (voice), 14 (chest/breasts), 17
(abdomen), and 23 (feet). Following these modifications, the final BIQ
model had a 2:df ratio of 1.70, (2(113) = 192.17, p < .001). The NFI, NNFI,

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Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences

.84 (.07)
.75 (.08)

Mid-torso

Item 18-Buttocks
Item 21-Hips

.62 (.08)

Item 22-Legs & Ankles

.67

.66 (.07)

Item 13-Shoulders
Item 15-Arms

.57

.68 (.08)

Extremities

Item 16-Hands
.43 (.08)

.57

.66

.88 (.05)
.91 (.05)

Sex Organs

Item 19-Size of sex organs

Item 20-Appearance of sex organs

.71
.41 (.07)
.59

.44 (.06)

.48 (.06)

Item 5-Ears

.42 (.08)

Face

Item 3-Hair
Item 4-Eyes
Item 6-Nose

.60 (.05)

Item 7-Mouth
.56 (.06)

Item 8-Teeth
.52 (.08)

.54 (.08)

Item 10-Chin
Item 11-Complexion

.75 (.06)

Item 12-Facial attractiveness

Figure 2. Final Body Image Questionnaire structure for overall Hispanic sample.
Factor loadings and standard errors are shown for each item and correlations are shown between factors.

and CFI were .87, .93, and .94, respectively. The final BIQ structure for the
overall Hispanic sample is shown in Figure 2.

EAT Model for Hispanic Women

The original three-factor EAT model proposed in the literature (Garner
et al., 1982) is shown in Figure 3. When the original factor structure of the
2
EAT (Figure 3) was tested for Hispanic women, the :df ratio was 4.61,
2
( (296) = 1,365.21, p < .001), with the following fit indices: NFI = .572,

Rutt, Coleman/Measures Related to Body Image

163

Item 1-Terrified of being overweight

Item 6-Aware of the calorie content of foods I eat
Item 7-Avoid foods with a high carb content
Item 10-Feel guilty after eating
Item 11-Preoccupied with desire to be thinner
Item 12-Think about calories when exercising
Item 14-Think of fat on my body

Dieting

Item 16-Avoid foods with sugar

Item 17-Eat diet foods
Item 22-Feel uncomfortable eating sweets
Item 23-Engage in dieting behaviors
Item 24-Like empty stomach
Item 26-Enjoy trying rich and new foods
Item 3-Preoccupied with food

Bulimic &
Food
Preoccupation

Item 4-Have gone on eating binges

Item 9-Vomit after I have eaten
Item 18-Feel that food controls my life
Item 21-Give too much time & thought to food
Item 25-Have the impulse to vomit after meals
Item 2-Avoid eating when I am hungry
Item 5-Cut my food into small pieces

Diet & Oral

Control

Item 8-Feel that others would prefer if I ate more

Item 13-Other people think I am too thin
Item 15-Take longer than others to eat meals
Item 19-Display self-control around food
Item 20-Feel that others pressure me to eat

Figure 3. Original three-factor structure for the Eating Attitudes Test (Garner,
Olmstead, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982). This factor structure was evaluated
using confirmatory factor analysis in EQS.

NNFI = .590, and CFI = .627. There was every indication that this was a poor
fit for the data. As explained previously, a new hypothesized model for the
EAT in Hispanic women was constructed in SPSS (shown in Figure 4). This
model was tested in EQS and had a 2:df ratio of 1.94, (2(142) = 275.56, p <
.001), with NFI = .785, NNFI = .855, and CFI = .880. There were several suggestions made by the LM test; however, only one made theoretical sense and
resulted in Item 22s (feeling guilty after eating sweets) loading highly on
two factors. Therefore, this item was deleted from the final EAT model. In
addition, two items loaded poorly (.25 and .17, respectively) on their corre-

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Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences

Figure 4. Factor structure hypothesized for the Eating Attitudes Test for Hispanic women. This model was generated with exploratory factor analysis in SPSS.

sponding factors and were also deleted from the model: Item 5 (cut food into
small pieces) and Item 26 (enjoy trying rich and new foods). For this revised
model, the 2:df ratio was 1.99, (2(109) = 216.49, p < .001), with fit indices
of NFI = .821, NFI = .875, and CFI = .900. This model is shown in Figure 5.

Discussion
Using CFA we were able to modify the BIQ slightly so that it can be used
to assess body image in a U.S./Mxico border population of Hispanic young
adults. The final Hispanic model for the BIQ contained four factors: (a) midtorso, (b) extremities, (c) sex organs, and (d) face. One factor was dropped

Rutt, Coleman/Measures Related to Body Image

Item 1-Terrified of being overweight

.75 (.12)
.60 (.09)
.81 (.10)

Fear of
Fat

165

Item 2-Avoid eating when I am hungry

Item 10-Feel guilty after eating

.89 (.11)
.75 (.12)

Item 11-Preoccupied with desire to be thinner

Item 12-Think about calories when exercising

.34
.69 (.12)

Item 14-Think of fat on body

.74 (.09)

-.13

Dieting
.67

Item 7-Avoid foods with high CHO content

.85 (.09)
.65 (.09)

Item 16-Avoid foods with sugar

Item 17-Eat diet foods

-.22
-.07

Other's
opinions

.28

.74 (.13)

Item 8-Feel that others would prefer I ate more

.63 (.15)

Item 13-Other people think I am too thin

.50 (.11)

Item 20-Feel that others pressure me to eat

-.08
.31
.75 (.10)

Preoccupation
with food
-.01

Item 3-Preoccupied with food

.72 (.08)
.87 (.08)

Item 4-Have gone on eating binges

Item 18-Feel that food controls my life

.05

.63 (.09)

Item 21-Give too much time & thought to food

Slow Eating

.59 (.14)

Item 15-Take longer than others to eat meals

Figure 5. Final Eating Attitudes Test structure for Hispanic women. Factor loadings and standard errors are shown for each item and correlations are
shown between factors.

from the original model (chest/breast), as were the following items: chest/
breast (Item 14), abdomen (Item 17), feet (Item 23), and voice (Item 9).
It is clear from our analyses that the original EAT factor structure was not a
good measure of eating behavior and attitudes regarding eating/food in
young Hispanic women who did not have eating disorders. Several of the
original 26 items were dropped from the EAT because they did not load on a
single factor. This resulted in a 17-item EAT with five factors: (a) fear of fat,
(b) diet, (c) others opinions, (d) preoccupation with food, and (e) slow eating. Recently, Jordan (2000) also found that several of the 26 items in the EAT
did not fit a population of current and former anorexic and bulimic, mostly
Caucasian women. Jordon found that a 15-item EAT was a better fit for this

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Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences

population. However, :df ratio was still high (3.24), and the CFI was .88,
indicating that this new form of the EAT was still not the best tool for assessing eating attitudes in a primarily Caucasian population of women with current and former eating disorders.
Most of the research that has been done on eating disorders has been conducted exclusively with Caucasian women (Collins et al., 1982; Hesse-Biber
et al., 1986; Levine & Smolack, 1996; Mintz & Betz, 1988; Murray et al.,
1995; Pyle et al., 1986; Thompson & Schwartz, 1982; U.S. House, 1990).
Future studies need to assess eating disorders separately in both men and
women of various ethnicities. Due to the small number of Hispanic men in
our sample, it was not possible to examine the factor structure of the EAT.
Future investigations should place special emphasis on recruiting strategies
that target men of various ethnicities and backgrounds for the assessment of
body image and attitudes toward eating. In addition, future studies should
examine the factor structure of the EAT in both clinical and noneating disordered Hispanics. It may be found that the factor structure of the EAT is different in Hispanics who possess eating disorders.
It is clear that minority and majority populations vary with respect to
many factors including attitudes toward health in general (Allan, 1998; Felts
et al., 1996; Guinn et al., 1997; M. B. Harris & Koehler, 1992; Huerta &
Macario, 1999; Kriska & Rexroad, 1998; Naranjo & Dirksen, 1998) and attitudes toward their bodies (Allan, 1998; Altabe, 1998; Cash & Henry, 1995;
Fitzgibbon et al., 1998; Lopez et al., 1995; Ogden & Elder, 1998; Robinson et
al., 1996; Story et al., 1995). Many of these differences have been assessed
using self-report questionnaires developed for upper-middle-class Caucasian adults. Although it has been recommended that ethnic differences in
individual items for any questionnaire be examined (Abood & Mason, 1997),
few researchers have attempted to validate questionnaires in minority populations before using them to assess clinical outcomes (such as body image
and eating disorders).
With respect to body image and disturbed eating patterns, the only study
that has assessed the validity of measures of body image and eating disorders
in Hispanics was that of Joiner and Kashubeck (1996). They calculated
Cronbachs alpha for each measure they used: the BDS of the EDI, the
EAT-26, the Bulimia Test Revised (BUILT-R), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem
Scale, and the Body Figure Perception and Preference Questionnaire. They
found that the measures showed acceptable internal consistency, with
Cronbachs alpha scores ranging from .85 to .92 in all the scales. However,
they did not examine individual items for each scale or the factor structures
for each scale used in their study.
2

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167

There are several limitations to our study that should be considered when
deciding to use the modified BIQ and EAT scales we have presented.
Although our sample was large with 255 Hispanic men and women, this does
not guarantee that the modified factor structures for the BIQ and EAT are stable for use in young adult Hispanics. Unfortunately, with structural equation
modeling, sample sizes of as many as 500 participants may not be adequate to
establish stable factor structures (Kline, 1998). Additionally, our sample was
composed solely of Hispanic college students who lived on the U.S./Mxico
border. Although this border population allowed us to sample a wide range of
Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans, this sample may be different
from one made up of Hispanics living in other parts of the United States or
Mexico. It has been well established that Hispanic is a label that includes several subgroups of Spanish-speaking people from various parts of the world
with distinct cultures and customs (Huerta & Macario, 1999; Naranjo &
Dirksen, 1998). These customs are often integrated into the majority U.S.
culture when people come here from other countries, resulting in even more
cultural variability (Burnam et al., 1987). Our participants were fairly acculturated to majority U.S. customs. Our findings might have been very different
if we had sampled a population of Hispanic people who were not acculturated
and/or did not speak English fluently. Finally, because our sample consisted
of college students, generalizability of our findings to noncollegiate populations is limited.

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Candace D. Rutt, M.S., is pursuing her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Texas at
El Paso where she received her masters of art degree. She completed her bachelor of science degree in psychology at Michigan State University. She is currently studying body
image and health-related behaviors in Hispanics.
Karen J. Coleman, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of health psychology at the University
of Texas at El Paso. She received her bachelor of science degree in zoology from Washington State University and both her masters of science and doctorate in biopsychology
from the University of Georgia. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral medicine at the University at Buffalo. She currently studies the behavioral and
physiological etiology of obesity and diabetes in minority communities.