The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ; Karlsson et al., 2000; Stunkard & Messick, 1985; ) is one of the most used measures of self-assessment of eating behaviours. The basic psychometric characteristics of the Croatian translation of the questionnaire were analysed on a non-clinical sample (Nikolić et al., 2018). Additional examination of the factor structure and criterion validity on non-clinical and clinical samples is an important contribution of this research. Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, we analysed data on the non-clinical sample of students (N = 419, Mage = 22.17, SDage = 2.39, MBMI = 22.29, SDBMI = 3.32) from several universities in Croatia, while in Study 2 we analysed data on the clinical sample of obese persons. A total of 71 patients of the Daily Hospital for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, aged 26 to 71 years (M = 45.20, SD = 11.12) participated in this part of the study. The average body mass index of this group was 41.97 (SD = 8.64), ranging from 29 to 71. In both samples, confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the assumed three-factor structure and the obtained subscales had satisfactory descriptive parameters and reliability coefficients. Anxiety, depression, and stress were correlated with individual eating patterns in the student sample, while emotional and uncontrolled eating were positively associated with depression, and cognitive control was negatively associated with depression in the obese adult sample. Based on the obtained psychometric indicators, it can be concluded that the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire is a valid instrument, which can be used to examine eating habits in non-clinical and clinical samples.

Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, cognitive restraint, obesity