The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire: factorial validity and association with Body Mass Index in Dutch children aged 6–7

Sleddens, Kremers, Thijs, Thijs Carel

Description

The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) is a parent-report measure designed to assess variation in eating style among children. In the present study we translated the CEBQ and examined its factor structure in a sample of parents of 6- and 7-year-old children in the Netherlands. Additionally, associations between the mean scale scores of the instrument and children's body mass index (BMI) were assessed. Methods In total, 135 parents of primary school children aged 6 and 7 completed the questionnaire (response rate 41.9%). Children's BMI was converted into standardised z-scores, adjusted for child gender and age to examine the association between mean scale scores and child weight status. Results Results generally confirmed the theoretical factor structure, with acceptable internal reliability and between-subscale correlations. Linear regression analyses revealed that BMI z-scores were positively associated with the 'food approach' subscales of the CEBQ (food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, emotional overeating) (β's 0.15 to 0.22) and negatively with 'food avoidant' subscales (satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, emotional undereating, and food fussiness) (β's -0.09 to -0.25). Significant relations with child BMI z-scores were found for food responsiveness (p = 0.02), enjoyment of food (p = 0.03), satiety responsiveness (p = 0.01) and slowness in eating (p = 0.01). Conclusion The results support the use of the CEBQ as a psychometrically sound tool for assessing children's eating behaviours in Dutch children and the study demonstrates its applicability in overweight-related studies.

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 25
• Langue: English

Extrait

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

BioMedCentral

Open Access Research The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire: factorial validity and association with Body Mass Index in Dutch children aged 6–7 1,3 1,3 2,3 Ester FC Sleddens , Stef PJ Kremers* and Carel Thijs

1 Address: Department of Health Education and Promotion, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands, 2 3 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Primary Care (Caphri), Maastricht, the Netherlands and Nutrition and Toxicology Research Institute Maastricht (NUTRIM), Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands Email: Ester FC Sleddens  [e-mail]; Stef PJ Kremers*  [e-mail] ; Carel Thijs  [e-mail] * Corresponding author

Published: 20 October 2008 Received: 7 July 2008 Accepted: 20 October 2008 International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity2008,5:49 doi:10.1186/14795868549 This article is available from: http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/5/1/49 © 2008 Sleddens et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract Background:The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) is a parentreport measure designed to assess variation in eating style among children. In the present study we translated the CEBQ and examined its factor structure in a sample of parents of 6 and 7yearold children in the Netherlands. Additionally, associations between the mean scale scores of the instrument and children's body mass index (BMI) were assessed. Methods:In total, 135 parents of primary school children aged 6 and 7 completed the questionnaire (response rate 41.9%). Children's BMI was converted into standardised zscores, adjusted for child gender and age to examine the association between mean scale scores and child weight status. Results:Results generally confirmed the theoretical factor structure, with acceptable internal reliability and betweensubscale correlations. Linear regression analyses revealed that BMI zscores were positively associated with the 'food approach' subscales of the CEBQ (food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, emotional overeating) (β's 0.15 to 0.22) and negatively with 'food avoidant' subscales (satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, emotional undereating, and food fussiness) (β's 0.09 to 0.25). Significant relations with child BMI zscores were found for food responsiveness (p = 0.02), enjoyment of food (p = 0.03), satiety responsiveness (p = 0.01) and slowness in eating (p = 0.01).

Conclusion:The results support the use of the CEBQ as a psychometrically sound tool for assessing children's eating behaviours in Dutch children and the study demonstrates its applicability in overweightrelated studies.

Background Especially during the last few decades the prevalence rates of childhood overweight and obesity have reached epi demic proportions worldwide [1], and also in the Nether lands [2]. Obese children face difficulties in their social

life and run a substantially increased risk of becoming our future generation of obese, chronically diseased adoles cents and adults [3,4]. Despite widely held beliefs regard ing the importance of factors promoting excessive weight gain in children, it still remains a challenge to discover the

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