Measuring family food environments in diverse families with young children.
This study reports the development and validation of the 20 item Family Food Behavior Survey, a measure designed to assess broad components of the family food environment that may contribute to child overweight. In a diverse sample of 38 parents, factor analyses verified 4 domains: (1) maternal control of child eating behavior; (2) maternal presence during eating; (3) child choice, and (4) organization of eating environment. All domains achieved acceptable internal reliability (alphas= .73, -.83), and test-retest reliability. Mothers of overweight children scored significantly lower on maternal presence and somewhat higher on maternal control than mothers of normal weight children.
McCurdy
Karen
K
Human Development & Family Studies, University of Rhode Island, 2 Lower College, Kingston, RI 02881, USA. kmccurdy@uri.edu
Gorman
Kathleen S
KS
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008913:Minority Groups; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology; D050177:Overweight / Q000523:psychology; D011203:Poverty; D012931:Social Environment; D013690:Television