title: Differentiating between successful and unsuccessful dieters. Validity and reliability of the Perceived Self-Regulatory Success in Dieting Scale.
abstract: Dieting and the wish to lose weight are ubiquitous in our society. Only few people, however, are successful in long-term weight loss and -maintenance. The Perceived Self-Regulatory Success in Dieting Scale (PSRS) is a succinct 3-item measure that can be used to differentiate between successful and unsuccessful dieters. However, psychometric properties of the scale have not yet been investigated. We re-analyzed data from several studies and demonstrate validity and reliability of the PSRS. Internal consistency was reasonably high (Cronbach's alpha=.72-.79). Item means were medium and item-total-correlations were high. Validity of the scale was demonstrated such that it correlated negatively with body-mass-index (BMI), concern for dieting, rigid dietary control, food cravings, food addiction symptoms, and binge eating. Flexible dietary control was positively associated with the PSRS. We conclude that the PSRS constitutes a valid and reliable measure to efficiently assess dieting success.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology I, University of Würzburg, Marcusstr. 9-11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany. adrian.meule@uni-wuerzburg.de
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meule
authors.forename: Esther K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Papies
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kübler
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D001066:Appetite; D016739:Behavior, Addictive; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D004032:Diet / Q000523:psychology*; D004038:Diet, Reducing / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D006963:Hyperphagia / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010465:Perception; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D015431:Weight Loss; D055815:Young Adult