Eating Disorder Items in Transdiagnostic Screening Tools for Child Mental Health: A Rapid Review

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Abstract
Transdiagnostic screening tools (e.g., MINI-KID) are beneficial in detecting risk factors for a range of mental health problems in children; yet no research has explored how effective these tools are in detecting eating disorders (EDs). The aim of this review was to synthesise evidence on the discriminative power of transdiagnostic screening tools for identifying EDs among children aged 5–12. The review was pre-registered on PROSPERO; PRISMA guidelines were followed. PsycINFO and Medline were searched for peer-reviewed studies that used validated transdiagnostic mental health screening tools and reported on psychometric properties in children with an ED, published up until April 2025. Seven studies met inclusion criteria. Psychometric properties of the screening tools ranged from weak to excellent, with sensitivity for detecting EDs being less than acceptable (i.e., <80%) for 6 of the 7 tools identified in this review. Not all metrics of discriminative power were reported for 7 tools, and in most studies the number of children with an ED was too small to have reliable results. This suggests that existing transdiagnostic tools are not capturing EDs well, and that more effort is needed to establish comprehensive screening processes that will accurately identify children at high risk for developing EDs.
Funding Information
  • Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF 2026538)

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