---
title: Eating attitudes test (EAT)
description: "Two self-report questionnaires designed to tap into problematic attitudes common in eating disorders. #### Details The original questionnaire (EAT-40) had 40 items and was described in Garner, D. M., & Garfinkel, P. E. (1979). *The Eating Attitudes Test: An index…"
url: "https://www.psyctc.org/psyctc/glossary2/eating-attitudes-test-eat/"
updated: "2024-03-31"
category: All OM book glossary entries
---

# Eating attitudes test (EAT)

Two self-report questionnaires designed to tap into problematic attitudes common in eating disorders.

#### Details

The original questionnaire (EAT-40) had 40 items and was described in Garner, D. M., & Garfinkel, P. E. (1979). *The Eating Attitudes Test: An index of the symptoms of anorexia nervosa*. Psychological Medicine, 9, 273–279. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700030762](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700030762) (paywall). A later paper Garner, D. M., Olmstead, M. P., Bohr, Y., & Garfinkel, P. E. (1982). *The Eating Attitudes Test: Psychometric features and clinical correlates*. Psychological Medicine, 12, 871–878. [https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700049163](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700049163); paywall) gave more information and introduced a short form, the EAT-26. Scoring on both measures is the same for all items with six response levels scored 0-0-0-1-2-3 and the score is the total of the items' scores. Both have three scales derived from exploratory factor analysis. The subscales are labelled: "dieting", "bulimia and food preoccupation" and "oral control". The measures are free to use unaltered. See [https://www.eat-26.com/permission/](https://www.eat-26.com/permission/).

#### Try also

Exploratory factor analysis

#### Chapters

Mentioned in Chapter 4.

#### Online resources

[https://www.eat-26.com/](https://www.eat-26.com/)

#### Dates

First created 11.ii.24, tweaked 31.iii.24.