Objective:
This study aimed to investigate the initial psychometric properties and to establish norms for the Clinical Impairment Assessment (CIA v. 3.0) among a nonclinical sample of young adult women.
Method:
The CIA is a brief, 16‐item self‐report measure designed to assess psychosocial impairment due to eating disorder features over the past 28 days. We administered the CIA and the Eating Disorder Examination‐Questionnaire (EDE‐Q v. 6.0) to 438 university women (mean age = 25 years).
Results:
Participants' mean global CIA score was 6.4 (SD = 7.5; range 0–40). Acceptable levels of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.94) and 1‐week test‐retest reliability were observed. Significant correlations were found between the CIA and the EDE‐Q total and subscale scores (Spearman rhos = 0.58–0.79), indicating that greater levels of impairment were associated with higher levels of eating disorder psychopathology.
Discussion:
Results demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties of the CIA among a sample of young adult women, suggesting the utility of the CIA to measure impairment due to eating disorder features in nonclinical samples. © 2009 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2010