Psychometric Analyses of the Motivation to Prepare Healthy Foods Questionnaire Used With Adult College Students

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2019

Abstract

© 2018 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior Objective: To develop and validate a questionnaire to measure adult college students’ motivation to prepare healthy foods based on the psychosocial needs identified by Self-determination Theory. Design: This study used a cross-sectional design. Setting: A major southeastern public university. Subjects: A total of 1,027 free-living adults, aged 18–30 years, were recruited. Data from 997 were analyzed. Variables Measured: The 5 constructs of Self-determination Theory were validated. Analysis: Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, confirmatory factor analysis, and respecification analysis were performed. Results: The exploratory factor analysis returned 5 factors with acceptable internal structure. Cronbach α values were.94 for perceived competence,.85 for autonomy support,.87 for intrinsic motivation,.78 for relatedness, and.77 for autonomy. Test-retest reliability coefficients were 0.66–0.79. Confirmatory factor and respecification analyses revealed that the 5-factor structure was an appropriate fit for the data. Conclusions and Implications: More research is needed to test the questionnaire's use in a culinary classroom setting to reaffirm these findings. Future research includes testing the instrument's convergent and discriminant validity, performing differential analyses to generalize its use in a wider adult population, and using it to assess change in motivation as a result of participating in a classroom-based culinary skills-building intervention. Additional confirmatory studies are needed to determine whether using nutrition and kinesiology students in the current study affected construct validity.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

First Page

456

Last Page

464

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS