title: Regulatory focus and food choice motives. Prevention orientation associated with mood, convenience, and familiarity.
abstract: The authors tested the robustness of the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) with a U.S. sample and examined the relationship between individual differences in regulatory focus and everyday food choice motives. Although a popular measure in cross-culture research, the FCQ has seen limited use with U.S. samples, and its psychometric properties have not been tested in this population. American participants (n = 408) completed the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire and a measure of food choice motives. The data did not support the nine-factor FCQ structure. An ad hoc revised measure of food choice motives showed complete measurement invariance (loadings, intercepts, and residuals) across regulatory focus. Regarding everyday food choices, participants with a prevention focus placed greater importance on mood, convenience, and familiarity than participants with a promotion focus. There were no significant differences regarding the importance of health, environmental protection, impression management, natural content, price, and sensory appeal. Several food choice motives were positively correlated. Compared with the promotion-focused participants, the prevention-focused participants more strongly associated the importance of sensory appeal with the importance of natural content and the importance of price.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA. Electronic address: kpula@smcvt.edu.
authors.forename: Kacy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pula
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
authors.forename: Craig D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Parks
authors.affiliation: School of Food Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
authors.forename: Carolyn F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Ross
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004032:Diet / Q000523:psychology; D057140:Fast Foods; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Food Choice Questionnaire; Food choice motives; Motivational orientations; Regulatory focus