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

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.

Plain Language Summary

General mental health screeners for children, such as the MINI-KID, are designed to detect risks for a wide range of psychological problems, but their ability to identify eating disorders has not been well studied. This review examined evidence on how well these tools distinguish eating disorders in children aged 5–12, following standard research procedures including PROSPERO registration and PRISMA guidelines, and searching PsycINFO and Medline for relevant studies published up to April 2025. Seven studies met the criteria, and while the overall quality of the tools varied from weak to excellent, most were not sensitive enough to reliably detect eating disorders, with six out of seven showing sensitivity below 80%. Many studies also had very few children with eating disorders, limiting the reliability of their findings. Taken together, the evidence suggests that current general screening tools do not capture eating disorders in children well, highlighting the need for more comprehensive and accurate screening methods to identify those at high risk.