The Three Dimensions of Eating Behavior: Development of scale for assessing cognitive restraint of eating disinhibition, and hunger

Kim, Moon Sil; Kim, Sook Young

Abstract

This study was done to develop a eating behavior scale for high school girls using Stunkard and Messick(1985)'s three factors(dietary restraint, disinhibition, hunger) as a conceptual framework and to test the validity and reliability of the scale. The subjects were 202 high school girls. The convenience sample is consist of 96 normal weight and 106 obese girls. Data were collected between October 28 and November 25 in 1996 and analyzed using the SPSS package. The new 32-item scale measuring these factors is presented. 1. Three stable factors emerged and these contributed 45.7% of the variance in the total score. All 32 items loaded above .35 on each factor. 2. Factor 1 was named disinhibition(14 items), factor 2 was named cognitive restraint of eating(10 items), factor 3 was named hunger(8 items). Comparison of factor I, factor II, factor III between normal subjects and obese subjects showed that there was a significant difference in factor II and III, not in factor I. 3. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for internal consistency was .9393 for total 32 items and .8820, .8652, .8490 for three dimensions of eating behavior in high school girls. Recommendations are suggested below : 1. Replication study with appropriate age groups be done to test validity and reliability. 2. The present developed scale must be a reliable measure of eating behavior and should have utility in further study on how effective nursing interventions related to different kind of groups such as disinhibition group and cognitive restraint of eating group. 3. To extend validity of the scale, further study is needs using more larger subjects which is consists of dieters and free eaters.