Dietary restraint: intention versus behavior to restrict food intake.
The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire Restraint Scale (DEBQ-R) assesses both intentions to restrict food intake (3 items) and actual behavioral restraint (7 items). Studies in general population's samples have shown that the DEBQ-R is a reliable instrument with all items loading highly on a single factor. The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of a two-factor intention-versus-behavior structure of the DEBQ-R in 3 different weight-concerned samples with people from different (over)weight categories (total N=790) using confirmatory factor analysis. A robust two-factor structure emerged in the various samples, generally supporting a distinction between DEBQ-R questions relating to intentions to restrict food intake and actual restrictive behavior. Results obtained in this study are important, because they suggest that a distinction between restrained intention and behavior could help to explain the relation between dietary restraint and external overeating tendencies. Future longitudinal research should examine whether the newly developed dietary restraint scales predict changes in overeating and Body Mass Index (BMI).
Larsen
Junilla K
JK
Department of Clinical Psychology and the Institute for Gender Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands. j.larsen@pwo.ru.nl
van Strien
Tatjana
T
Eisinga
Rob
R
Herman
C Peter
CP
Engels
Rutger C M E
RC
D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires