Journal List > Korean J Community Nutr > v.20(1) > 1038493

Han, kim, Lee, and Kim: The Development and Validation of Eating Behavior Test Form for Infants and Young Children

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.

Figures and Tables

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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Table 1

Demographic characteristic of the study participants (N=1051)

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1) Mean±SD (Range)

Table 2

Exploratory factor analysis of eating behavior test for the early childhood (N=320)

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1) Refer to Supplement 1

Table 3

Exploratory factor analysis of eating behavior test for mothers (N=320)

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1) Refer to Supplement 2

Table 4

Internal consistency of eating behavior test for early childhood (N=731)

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Table 5

Test-retest reliability of eating behavior test (N=113)

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**: p < 0.01

Table 6

Goodness of fit measures of eating behavior test (N=731)

kjcn-20-1-i006

**: p < 0.01

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