Validating a German language version of the ATHLETE questionnaire for professional athletes

Abstract

The ATHLETE questionnaire (Hinton & Kubas, 2005) is designed to capture sport-specific psychosocial risk factors for disordered eating behaviors in female athletes. A comparable German language instrument does not yet exist. In the course of this study the authors developed a version of the ATHLETE in German and tested its factor structure and psychometric properties for professional female athletes. Data from 103 German athletes was collected using questionnaires and a clinical interview that was conducted at two different points of time. The factor structure of the German version is different from the original version because of three original and three new factors. Reliability and convergent validity of scales range from acceptable to very good. Results regarding criterion validity are heterogeneous: Scales for athletic-identity, perfectionism, distrust, and parent's behavior are not or moderately related to eating problems. Only the new scales sport and body and training to control weight emerge as suitable measures for the assessment of risk for disordered eating. They are predictors for eating disorder pathology after 12 months.