McKnight Foundation Studies
Starting in 1994, The McKnight Foundation funded a series of studies designed to identify potential risk factors for eating disorders in adolescents. The following provides a description of findings, the instruments used in the study, and other material related to the McKnight Risk Factor study.
The main focus of the McKnight Risk Factor study, conducted at Stanford University (CB Taylor, PI) and the University of Arizona, Tucson (CM Shisslak, PI), was to determine what factors might put young women in elementary, middle and high school at risk for developing eating disorders and then to examine the course and development of these factors. To achieve these goals, the investigators enrolled at least 100 students at each site at each grade level for grades 4-9. The total span of follow-up is thus from 5th-12th grades.
The following are available for public use:
- McKnight Risk Factor Survey-IV (MRFS-IV–Grades 4-5 version)
explanation | survey (138k PDF file)
- McKnight Risk Factor Survey-IV (MRFS-IV–Grades 6-12 version)
explanation | survey (141k PDF file)
- Sample characteristics
- Scoring guide (7k PDF), including factor analysis, for this sample
- MRFS-IV norms (39k PDF) for the factors by center and ethnicity
- Main outcomes paper (pending publication)
- Screen (grades 6-12) (pending publication)
- McKnight-related publications list (15k PDF)
- A demo of Student Bodies, an Internet-delivered psychoeducational program
- Parent education newsletter: explanation | newsletter (306k PDF)
Available on request from the investigators (btaylor@stanford.edu) are also (1) a protocol discussing how to track students in schools, (2) a method of converting the grade 4-5 data to grade 6-12 data, and (3) information on training for the clinical eating disorder interview.
