Psychometric Evaluation of the Turkish Form of the Weight Concerns Scale and Identification of an Optimal Cut-Off Score for Eating Disorder Risk

The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Weight Concerns Scale – Turkish Form (WCS-TF) in a large sample of women aged 18-24 and to determine a valid cutoff score for eating disorder risk. 1320 individuals were included in the study, and after outlier analyses, final analyses were conducted on 1306 participants. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to examine construct validity. Cronbach's alpha and split-half reliability coefficients were calculated as part of the reliability analyses. Convergent validity was examined using the Eating Attitudes Test-26 and the Body Appreciation Scale (BAS). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate the power to discriminate eating disorder risk. The results of the factor analyses revealed that the scale exhibited a unifactorial structure, explained 64% of the total variance, and the unifactorial model showed a very good fit. The scale's internal consistency coefficient was found to be high (Cronbach's α = .88), and split-half reliability analyses supported its reliability. Significant positive correlations were found between weight concerns scores and negative eating attitudes, while a significant negative correlation was found between weight concerns scores and body appreciation. ROC analysis determined the optimal cutoff score for eating disorder risk on the Weight Concerns Scale- Turkish Form to be ≥59.