Validation of the Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire in Poland

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity is increasingly diagnosed in pre-school and early primary school children. Eating styles displayed by the youngest children may contribute to the development of overweight and obesity. Their assessment may be extremely important in diagnosing the causes of obesity, but also in planning treatment. Aim of the study: In view of the need to introduce a tool for assessing eating behaviours in children in Poland, the aim of the study was to develop the Polish adaptation of the Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ). Material and methods: The study group consisted of 151 mothers of children aged 3–10 years (M = 6.77, SD = 2.34), who completed the Polish version of the CEBQ. In order to assess the validity of the questionnaire, a factor analysis was conducted, using the principal components method with the Oblimin rotation and Kaiser normalization. To assess the reliability of the questionnaire, its internal consistency was checked by calculating Cronbach’s alpha consistency coefficient. The external validity of the CEBQ was also checked by correlating its scales with those of the Temperament Questionnaire (EAS-C). Results: The principal components analysis extracted an eight-factor scale from the 35 items of the questionnaire in which a total of 60.57% of the common variance was explained. The validity of such an eight-factor solution was confirmed by the Kaiser method. Satisfactorily high values of Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficient were obtained (0.78). Positive correlations were found between emotionality and emotional undereating and overeating, between shyness and fussiness and negative correlations between activity and slowness in eating, sociability and fussiness and slowness in eating and between shyness and enjoyment of food. Conclusions: The Polish version of the CEBQ is characterized by the acceptable validity and reliability and has a satisfactory criterion accuracy; therefore, it can be used as a psychometric tool to assess eating behaviours in Polish children.

Avoidant/Restrictive Food Disorder (ARFID), Food Neophobia, Other Eating-Related Behaviours and Feeding Practices among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and in Non-Clinical Sample: A Preliminary Study

“…Finally, it is worth emphasizing that these studies had several limitations that should be eliminated by conducting further analyses in this area: (a) this was a cross-sectional study in which a relatively small sample took part (especially when referring to its size for regression analysis), recruited using voluntary sampling design, (b) the study was conducted in paper form for the clinical sample and in online form (online survey) for the non-clinical sample (which was caused by restrictions related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic), (c) the measurement was based only on subjective reports from caregivers from a small sample size, (d) not all measures were validated in the Polish sample (publications on the validation of some measures appeared only after the beginning of our study, e.g., [58,59]), (e) the original version of the EDY-Q is a self-report measure (in this study, it was used in the version in which parents assessed the functioning of their children), (f) the reliability of some CEBQ and CFQ subscales could be improved, (g) sensory sensitivity was assessed using ASD diagnosis measure (ASRS); therefore, it was not a tool dedicated to an in-depth diagnosis of sensory sensitivity in the clinical and non-clinical sample. Finally, it should be emphasized that since there could be masked elements contributing to the feeding challenges among these children (e.g., resistance to change, hypo-or hyper sensitivities, oral-motor skill deficits, medical complexity, cognitive and adaptive functioning abilities, genetic disorders), further research needs to analyse the background of these difficulties and challenges much more carefully.…”