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

Article information

Korean J Community Nutr. 2015;20(1):1-10

Publication date (electronic) : 2015 February 28

doi : https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2015.20.1.1

Youngshin Han ¹, Su An kim ¹, Yoonna Lee ², Jeongmee Kim ³

¹Environmental Health Center for Atopic Diseases, Samsung Medical Center Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

²Shingu College, Department of Food and Nutrition, Seongnam, Korea.

³Hansol Education Research Center, Hansol Education Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Jeongmee Kim. 6F Hansol Education Bldg., 361 Worldcup buk-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul 121-914, Korea. Tel: (02) 2001-5765, Fax: (02) 2001-5335, jeongmeex@eduhansol.co.kr

Received 2014 October 11; Revised 2015 December 31; Accepted 2015 January 19.

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 α=0.89; explanation of variance=27.79), factor 2, over activity (α=0.80, explanation of variance=16.51), and factor 3, irregularity (α=0.59, explanation of variance=10.01). Three factors for mother's eating behavior could be explained as follows; factor 1,irregularities (α=0.73, explanation of variance=21.73), factor 2, pickiness (α=0.65, explanation of variance= 20.16), and factor 3, permissiveness (α=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.

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

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