Assessment of problematic situations and coping strategies in women with eating disorders: Initial validation of a situation-specific problem inventory

The current study examined the psychometric properties of the Anorexia and Bulimia Problem Inventory (ABPI; Eason, 1983) in women with and without diagnosed eating disorders. The ABPI was initially constructed in accordance with the Behavior-Analytic model of instrument development (Goldfried and D'Zurilla, 1969). In this investigation, the ABPI was refined to consist of 38 audiotaped problematic situations, including those related to eating and weight, academic, family, and interpersonal relationship issues, and scoring criteria to rate the effectiveness of responses. Convergent and discriminant validity were established between ABPI-R scores and the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI; Garner, Olmsted, and Polivy, 1983) scales. As evidence of disciminative validity women with eating disorders received less ratings indicating less effective problem-solving on the ABPI-R scales than women without eating disorders. A significant increase in effective coping as measured by the ABPI-R was found for women following an 8-week outpatient eating disorders treatment program. Potential uses of this measure in research and clinical practice are discussed.