Motivation for change as a predictor of eating disorder treatment outcomes using a brief self-report YBC-EDS in a residential eating disorder population

•We created a new brief form of the Yale-Brown-Cornell Eating Disorder scale.•We tested the scale and sub-scales in a trans diagnostic eating disorder population.•Severity and Motivation subscales emerged as but Ego subscale did not.•Motivation for change significantly predicted two treatment outcome measures.•Depression, anxiety and OCD at admission were not significant outcome predictors.

The aim of this study was to investigate the factor structure and psychometric properties of a new brief self-report form of the Yale–Brown–Cornell Eating Disorder Scale (YBC-EDS-BSR) in a transdiagnostic eating disorder population, and to determine the predictive ability of motivation for change and ego syntonic subscales on treatment outcome. Self-report measures of the YBC-EDS-BSR, eating pathology, depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive symptoms were collected from 164 individuals entering residential treatment. Of these, 107 individuals completed identical measures at discharge. The admission items on the YBC-EDS-BSR were examined for factor structure, and subscales were examined for internal, convergent and discriminant validity. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate predictive value of the motivation and ego syntonic subscales on two measures of treatment outcome. Results indicate that the YBC-EDS-BSR demonstrated a robust factor structure and good psychometric properties in this population. The predicted ego-syntonic subscale did not emerge as an independent factor. The motivation for change subscale significantly predicted treatment outcome on the EDE-Q and the EDI-3 Global Maladjustment Scale. The ego-syntonic items and other psychopathology measures had no predictive value on treatment outcome. Results suggest that motivation for change is a significant predictor of treatment outcome over and above baseline psychopathology.