Psychometric assessment of the Behavior and Attitudes Questionnaire for Healthy Habits

Measuring parents’ views on food and physical activity

Bibliographic Data

ID15090182
AuthorsBarbara Henry (0000-0002-7157-3696, Northern Illinois University, corresponding author), Beverly W Henry, Thomas J Smith (0000-0003-1310-8742, Northern Illinois University), Saadia Ahmad (Northern Illinois University)
Year2014
Volume17
Issue5
Pages1004-1012
Publication date2014-05-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublic Health Nutrition (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1368-9800 • E-ISSN: 1475-2727
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s136898001200554x
PMID23332083
OpenAlexW2088293760
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited31

Objective To assess parents’ perspectives of their home environments to establish the validity of scores from the Behavior and Attitudes Questionnaire for Healthy Habits (BAQ-HH). Design In 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. Setting English 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. Subjects From 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 %). Results Exploratory 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. Conclusions As 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

Confirmatory factor analysis · Descriptive statistics · Developmental psychology · Ethnic group · Exploratory factor analysis · Psychometrics · Scale (ratio · Structural equation modeling · Clinical Psychology · Health and Lifestyle Studies · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet · Physical Activity and Health · Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access