Children’s and Mothers’ Perspectives of Problematic Eating Behaviours in Young Children and Adolescents: An Exploratory Study
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. Measures
- (1)
- The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R13) [2] is a self-applied Polish version of a 13-item questionnaire measuring three types of problematic eating behaviours: (a) emotional eating: “When I feel anxious, I find myself eating”; (b) uncontrolled eating: “When I see a real delicacy, I often get so hungry that I have to eat right away”; and (c) restrictive eating: “I deliberately take small helpings as the means of controlling my weight”. For items 1–12, the children respond on a 4-point Likert scale (from 1—“definitely false” to 4—“definitely true”). For item 13 (8-point Likert scale), responses range between 1—“eating whatever you want, whenever you want it” to 8—“constantly limiting food intake and never ‘giving in’” (1–2 are recoded into 1; 3–4 into 2; 5–6 into 3; and 7–8 into 4). The higher the score is, the higher the intensity of problematic eating behaviours. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients were as follows: (a) emotional eating: 0.70; (b) uncontrolled eating: 0.70; and (c) restrictive eating: 0.86.
- (2)
- The Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire for Children (DEBQ-C) [17] is a 20-item questionnaire and measures the three subscales of problematic eating behaviours: (a) emotional eating: “If you feel depressed, do you get a desire for food?”; (b) external eating: “Do you feel like eating whenever you see or smell good food?”; and (c) restrained eating: “Do you intentionally eat food that helps you lose weight?”. Responses range (5-point Likert scale) from 1 (“never”) to 5 (“very often”). The lower the scores are, the lower the problematic eating behaviours are. The present study focused on all of the abovementioned subscales, and their Cronbach’s alpha values were as follows: (a) emotional eating: 0.84; (b) external eating: 0.71; and (c) restrained eating: 0.88.
- (3)
- The Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) [19] is a 20-item questionnaire that measures parents’ assessment of the eating behaviours of their children. The scale is composed of eight subscales: (a) food responsiveness: “If allowed to, my child would eat too much”; (b) emotional over-eating: “My child eats more when annoyed”; (c) enjoyment of food: “My child enjoys eating”; (d) desire to drink: “My child is always asking for a drink”; (e) satiety responsiveness: “My child cannot eat a meal if s/he has had a snack just before”; (f) slowness in eating: “My child eats slowly”; (g) emotional under-eating: “My child eats less when upset”; and (h) food fussiness: “My child is difficult to please with meals”. Response options range (5-point Likert scale) between 1 “never” and 5 “always”. The present study focused on the three types of eating behaviours (food responsiveness, emotional over-eating and satiety responsiveness) that are semantically similar to the subscales described in the TFEQ-R13 and the DEBQ-C. Higher scores for food responsiveness and emotional over-eating indicate more problematic eating behaviours. The scale of satiety responsiveness is interpreted inversely: High scores are more adaptive eating styles. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients were as follows: (a) food responsiveness: 0.83; (b) emotional over-eating: 0.70; and (c) satiety responsiveness: 0.84.
- (4)
- The sociodemographic survey involves questions about gender, age, height, weight, feeding and eating disorders. The children’s anthropometric data were collected in a survey completed by the mothers.
- (5)
- The Eating Disorders in Youth-Questionnaire (EDY-Q) is a self-report 14-item measure assessing feeding and eating disorders [23]. Items were created based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) [24]. This tool was used to exclude children who had symptoms of feeding and eating disorders.
2.3. Procedure
2.4. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Children’s and Mothers’ Perspectives of the Relationships Between Problematic Eating Behaviours and BMI: Multivariate Regression Analysis
3.2. Comparison Between Girls and Boys in Different Age Groups: ANOVA
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variables | Young Children (8–11 years) | Adolescents (12–18 years) |
---|---|---|
N (%) | ||
104 | 99 | |
Sex 1 | ||
Female | 59 (56.73) | 44 (44.44) |
Male | 45 (43.27) | 55 (55.56) |
M (SD) | ||
Age | 9.14 (1.03) | 13.07 (1.37) |
Height | 139.45 (6.78) | 158.67 (8.14) |
Weight | 34.25 (5.63) | 48.13 (8.38) |
BMI 2 | 17.54 (2.07) | 19.03 (2.27) |
N (%) | ||
BMI | ||
Underweight | 2 | 3 |
Normal weight | 80 | 88 |
Overweight | 17 | 7 |
Obesity | 5 | 1 |
Predictors | β | R2-Change | |
---|---|---|---|
TFEQ-R13 | | 0.19 | |
Emotional eating | −0.112 | ||
Uncontrolled eating | 0.158 * | ||
Restrictive eating | 0.432 *** | ||
DEBQ-C | | 0.29 | |
Emotional eating | −0.116 | ||
External eating | 0.154 * | ||
Restrained eating | 0.570 *** | ||
CEBQ | | 0.16 | |
Food responsiveness | 0.009 | ||
Emotional over-eating | 0.349 ** | ||
Satiety responsiveness | −0.197 ** |
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Czepczor-Bernat, K.; Brytek-Matera, A. Children’s and Mothers’ Perspectives of Problematic Eating Behaviours in Young Children and Adolescents: An Exploratory Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2692. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152692
Czepczor-Bernat K, Brytek-Matera A. Children’s and Mothers’ Perspectives of Problematic Eating Behaviours in Young Children and Adolescents: An Exploratory Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(15):2692. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152692
Chicago/Turabian StyleCzepczor-Bernat, Kamila, and Anna Brytek-Matera. 2019. "Children’s and Mothers’ Perspectives of Problematic Eating Behaviours in Young Children and Adolescents: An Exploratory Study" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 15: 2692. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152692
APA StyleCzepczor-Bernat, K., & Brytek-Matera, A. (2019). Children’s and Mothers’ Perspectives of Problematic Eating Behaviours in Young Children and Adolescents: An Exploratory Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(15), 2692. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152692