Psychometric assessment of the Behavior and Attitudes Questionnaire for Healthy Habits: measuring parents’ views on food and physical activity

Public Health Nutrition

Beverly W Henry¹  Saadia Ahmad¹  Thomas J Smith¹ 

关键词: Pre-school;    Nutrition education;    Childhood obesity;    Health habits;    Health attitudes;   

DOI  :  10.1017/S136898001200554X

学科分类：卫生学

来源: Cambridge University Press

【 摘 要 】

AbstractObjectiveTo assess parents’ perspectives of their home environments to establish the validity of scores from the Behavior and Attitudes Questionnaire for Healthy Habits (BAQ-HH).DesignIn the present descriptive study, we surveyed a cross-sectional sample of parents of pre-school children. Questionnaire items developed in an iterative process with community-based programming addressed parents’ knowledge/awareness, attitudes/concerns and behaviours about healthy foods and physical activity habits with 6-point rating scales. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to psychometrically evaluate scores from the scales.SettingEnglish and Spanish versions of the BAQ-HH were administered at parent–teacher conferences for pre-school children at ten Head Start centres across a five-county agency in autumn 2010.SubjectsFrom 672 families with pre-school children, 532 parents provided responses to the BAQ-HH (79 % response rate). The majority was female (83 %), Hispanic (66 %) or white (16 %), and ages ranged from 20 to 39 years (85 %).ResultsExploratory and confirmatory analyses revealed a knowledge scale (seven items), an attitude scale (four items) and three behaviour subscales (three items each). Correlations were identified between parents’ perceptions of home activities and reports of children's habits. Differences were identified by gender and ethnicity groupings.ConclusionsAs a first step in psychometric testing, the dimensionality of each of the three scales (Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours) was identified and scale scores were related to other indicators of child behaviours and parents’ demographic characteristics. This questionnaire offers a method to measure parents’ views to inform planning and monitoring of obesity-prevention education programmes.

【 授权许可】

Unknown