The Restraint Scales from both the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and the DEBQ were used to broadly assess the construct of dietary restraint. The EDE-Q is a 36-item self-report measure. It has been adapted from the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE; Fairburn & Cooper, 1993) which is a semi-structured interview that assesses the presence and severity of eating disorder symptoms. The Restraint subscale of the EDE-Q is comprised of 5 items, rated on a 7-point scale, and inquires about dietary restraint (i.e., tendency to restrict food intake and avoid meals/high calorie foods as well as attempts to obey rigid rules for dieting) over the past 28 days. The Restraint subscale has demonstrated good reliability and validity, including excellent internal consistency in our sample (α = .83) and others (α = .85). In addition, there is high 2-week test-retest reliability (r = .81; Luce & Crowther, 1999). Finally, good concurrent validity between the EDEQ and the EDE Restraint measures has been demonstrated within a sample of eating disorder patients (r = .81; Fairburn & Beglin, 1994).
