Korean J Community Nutr.  2015 Feb;20(1):1-10. 10.5720/kjcn.2015.20.1.1.

The Development and Validation of Eating Behavior Test Form for Infants and Young Children

• Han Y
• Kim SA
• Lee Y
• Kim J

• KMID: 2268599
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2015.20.1.1

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
This study was conducted to develop and validate Eating Behaviors Test form (EBT) for infants and young children, including eating behaviors of their parents and parental feeding practices.
METHODS
Draft version of EBT form was developed after a pretest on 83 mothers. It was consisted of 42 questions including 3 components; eating behavior of children, eating behavior of parents, and parental feeding practices. Using these questionnaires, the first survey was conducted on 320 infants and children, 1 to 6 year old, for exploratory factor analysis, and the second survey was collected on 731 infants and children for confirmatory factor analysis.
RESULTS
Exploratory factor analysis on 42 questions of EBT form resulted in 3 factor model for children's eating behavior, 3 factor model for parents' eating behavior, and 1 factor model for parental feeding practices. Three factors for children's eating behavior could be explained as follows; factor 1, pickiness (reliability alpha=0.89; explanation of variance=27.79), factor 2, over activity (alpha=0.80, explanation of variance=16.51), and factor 3, irregularity (alpha=0.59, explanation of variance=10.01). Three factors for mother's eating behavior could be explained as follows; factor 1,irregularities (alpha=0.73, explanation of variance=21.73), factor 2, pickiness (alpha=0.65, explanation of variance= 20.16), and factor 3, permissiveness (alpha=0.60, explanation of variance=19.13). Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed an acceptance fit for these models. Internal consistencies for these factors were above 0.6.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicated that EBT form is a valid tool to measure comprehensive eating and feeding behaviors for infants and young children.

Keyword

infants; young children; eating behavior; factor analysis; feeding practice

MeSH Terms

Child*
Eating
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Feeding Behavior*
Humans
Infant*
Mothers
Parents
Permissiveness
Surveys and Questionnaires

Figure

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  Fig. 1 The confirmatory factor analysis of eating behavior test for children

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  Fig. 2 The confirmatory factor analysis of eating behavior test for mothers

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