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Using the SCOFF Questionnaire to assess Eating Disorders: SSWN Open Access 2020

Using the SCOFF Questionnaire to assess Eating Disorders:  SSWN Open Access 2020

Editor’s Note: In this SSWN Open Access 2020 series, we’re sharing the articles from the just-published open-access International Journal of School Social Work (published by SSWAA, and where I serve as Editor-in-Chief) with SSWN readers and to invite authors and practitioners to interact with this original research here and over at our SSWNetwork platform. The sixth article is a more technical article by Dr. Gerald J. Bean (Ohio State University) that had as its aim “to examine the psychometric properties of a popular eating order screening scale—the SCOFF Questionnaire—in a seventh-grade population using Item Response Theory.” and Dr. Bean wrote in the conclusion to his paper:

The most important take-away from this study is that our results do not support the generally recommended scoring rule that a summed score of two or greater flags a seventh grade respondent as being at eating disorder risk. This scoring rule assumes that SCOFF items are equally weighted as indicators of risk. Our results suggest that items are not equally weighted either overall or within male and female groups.


An-IRT-analysis-of-the-SCOFF-Questionnaire-in-a-seventh-grade-population

Tell us what you think and share how you might use this research on screening for eating disorders where you practice, over at SSWNetwork.

About The Author

Michael Kelly

Michael S. Kelly PhD, LCSW is the Lucian and Carol Welch Matusak Professor and Director of the School Mental Health Advanced Practice certificate and Family and School Partnerships Program at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Social Work. Prior to coming to Loyola in Fall 2006, he was a school social worker, family therapist, and youth minister in the Chicago area for 14 years. He has authored over 80 journal articles, books, and book chapters on school social work, evidence-based practice (EBP), and positive youth development. He is a fellow of the Oxford Symposium for School-Based Family Counseling, co-Chair of the Society for Social Work & Research SSW Special Interest Group, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of School Social Work, and Associate Editor of School Mental Health. He has recently brought his work on school mental health and EBP to researchers and practitioners in England, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Canada, Chile, and Japan.

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