Reliability and structural validity of the parental feeding style questionnaire adapted for Brazilian preschool children

Authors

  • Camila Pinheiro Coura Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Nutrição Josué de Castro, Departamento de Gastronomia. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8124-9155
  • Dra. Emanuele Souza Marques Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Medicina Social Hesio Cordeiro, Departamento de Epidemiologia. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8633-7290
  • Luana Silva Monteiro Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Centro Multidisciplinar UFRJ-Macaé, Instituto de Alimentação e Nutrição. Macaé, RJ, Brasil. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3599-6947
  • Thais Meirelles de Vasconcelos Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Nutrição e Saúde. Fortaleza, CE, Brasil. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0108-8991
  • Rosangela Alves Pereira Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Nutrição Josué de Castro, Departamento de Nutrição Social e Aplicada. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9886-9796

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12957/demetra.2026.87303

Keywords:

Children feeding practices. Questionnaires. Validation studies. Psychometrics. Factor analysis.

Abstract

The study aimed to evaluate of the reliability and structural validity of the Brazilian version of the Parental Feeding Style Questionnaire (PFSQ).Parents/guardians of 269children between 4-5 years old completed the translated and culturally adapted PSFQ. Subscale Cronbach’s alpha examined internal consistency, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to assess the structural validity of the questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha of subscales ranged from 0.63 to 0.78, and the overall consistency was good (alpha=0.73). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a four-factor model was valid to asses feeding parental style after the rearrangement of 22 out of the 27 questions in the original questionnaire into four dimensions denominated: (a) instrumental and emotional feeding; (b) prompting or encouragement to eat; (c) control over eating; and (d) permissive feeding. The psychometric evaluation of the PFSQ determined the proposition of a new version with fewer questions to characterize parental feeding styles.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Camila Pinheiro Coura, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Nutrição Josué de Castro, Departamento de Gastronomia. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.

Possui graduação em Psicologia pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (2006), graduação em Gastronomia pela Universidade Estácio de Sá (2007), mestrado em Nutrição pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (2013) e Doutorado em Ciências Nutricionais pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (2019). Atualmente é Professora Assistente do Curso de Gastronomia do Instituto de Nutrição Josué de Castro da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Tem experiência na área de Gastronomia com ênfase em Culinária Internacional.

References

1. Birch LL. Development of food preferences. Annu Rev Nutr. 1999;(19):41-62. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.nutr.19.1.41

2. Darling N, Steinberg L. Parenting Style as Context: An Integrative Model. Psychol Bull. 1993;(113):487-496. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.113.3.487

3. Shloim N, Edelson LR, Martin N, Hetherington MM. Parenting Styles, Feeding Styles, Feeding Practices, and Weight Status in 4-12 Year-Old Children: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Front Psychol. 2015;(6):1-20. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01849

4. Blissett J. Relationships between parenting style, feeding style and feeding practices and fruit and vegetable consumption in early childhood. Appetite, 2011;(57):826-831. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2011.05.318

5. Hughes SO, Power TG, Orlet Fisher J, Mueller S, Nicklas TA. Revisiting a neglected construct: parenting styles in a child-feeding context. Appetite, 2005;(44):83-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2004.08.007

6. Ventura AK, Birch LL. Does parenting affect children’s eating and weight status? IJBNPA, 2008;(5):1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-5-15

7. Hurley KM, Cross MB, Hughes SO. A Systematic Review of Responsive Feeding and Child Obesity in High-Income Countries. J Nutr. 2011;(141):495- 501. https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.110.130047

8. Cauduro GN, Reppold CT, Pacheco JTB. Adaptação Transcultural do Questionário de Estilos Parentais na Alimentação (QEPA). Aval Psicol. 2018;(16):293-300. http://dx.doi.org/10.15689/ap.2017.1603.12452

9. Joyce JL, Zimmer-Gembeck MJ. Parent feeding restriction and child weight. The mediating role of child disinhibited eating and the moderating role of the parenting context. Appetite. 2009;(52):726-734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2009.03.015

10. Wardle J, Sanderson S, Guthrie CA, Rapoport L, Plomin R. Parental feeding style and the intergenerational transmission of obesity risk. Obes Res. 2002;(10):453-462. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2002.63

11. Borsa JC, Damásio BF, Bandeira DR. Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of Psychological Instruments. Paidéia. 2012;(22):423-432. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-863X2012000300014

12. Nunnally J, Bernstein L. Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher, INC; 1994.

13. Brown TA. Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. 2nd ed. New York: The Guilford Press; 2015.

14. Sörbom, D. Model modification. Psychometrika. 1989;(54):371-384. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02294623

15. Ford J, MacCallum R, Tait M. The application of exploratory factor analysis in applied psychology: A critical review and analysis. Personnel Psychology. 1986;(39):291-314. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1986.tb00583.x

16. Muthén LK, Muthén BO (1996-2018). Mplus user’s guide (8th ed.). Muthén & Muthén.

17. Finney S, Distefano C. Non-normal and categorical data in structural equation modeling. In Structural equation modeling: A second course (2ed ed.). Charlotte: Information Age Publishing; 2013.

18. Lauzon-Guillain B, Oliveira A, Charles MA, Grammatikaki E, Jones L, Rigal N, et al. A review of methods to assess parental feeding practices and preschool children's eating behavior: the need for further development of tools. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012;(112):1578-602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2012.06.356.

19. Ogden J, Reynolds R, Smith A. Expanding the concept of parental control: A role for overt and covert control in children’s snacking behaviour? Appetite. 2006;(47):100-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2006.03.330

20. Wardle J, Guthrie C, Sanderson S, Rapoport L. Development of the Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire. JCPP. 2001;(42):963-970. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00792

21. Kidwell KM, Tomaso C, Lundahl A, Nelson TD. Confirmatory factor analysis of the parental feeding style questionnaire with a preschool sample. Eat Weight Disord. 2020;(25):407-414. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0613-z

22. Tam W, Keung V, Lee A, Lo K, Cheung C. Chinese translation and validation of a parental feeding style questionnaire for parents of Hong Kong preschoolers. BMC Public Health. 2014;(14):1-7. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1194

23. Özçetin M, Yilmaz R, Erkorkmaz U, Esmeray H. Reliability and validity study of parental feeding style questionnaire. Turk Pediatri Arsivi. 2010;(45),124-131. https://doi.org/10.4274/tpa.45.124

24. Kline, R B. Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling. 4th ed. New York: The Guilford Press. 534p. 2016.

Downloads

Published

2026-01-30

How to Cite

1.
Coura CP, Souza Marques E, Silva Monteiro L, Meirelles de Vasconcelos T, Alves Pereira R. Reliability and structural validity of the parental feeding style questionnaire adapted for Brazilian preschool children. DEMETRA [Internet]. 2026 Jan. 30 [cited 2026 Apr. 7];21:e87303. Available from: https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/demetra/article/view/87303

Issue

Vol. 21 (2026)

Section

Food and Nutrition in Collective Health

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Camila Pinheiro Coura, Emanuele Souza Marques, Luana Silva Monteiro, Thais Meirelles de Vasconcelos, Rosangela Alves Pereira

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

 

                  STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP RESPONSIBILITY

 

Title of the manuscript:

________________________________________________________

 

1. Statement of responsability

I certify that I have participated in the work above specified and take public responsibility for its content.

I certify that the manuscript represents an original work and that none of the material in the manuscript has been previously published, is included in another manuscript, or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere, whether in printed form or in electronic media, except that described in the attachment.

In case of acceptance of this text by Demetra: Alimentação, Nutrição & Saude, I declare to be in accordance with the policy of public access and copyright adopted by Demetra, which provides as follows: (a) the authors retain the copyright and grant to the Journal the right of first publication, the work being simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows the sharing of the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal; (b) authors are authorized to enter additional contracts separately for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (eg, publishing in institutional repository or book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal; and (c) authors are permitted and encouraged to post and distribute their work online (eg, in institutional repositories or on their personal page) at any point before or during the editorial process, as this may lead to productive changes, as well as increase the impact and citation of the published work.

 

2. Conflict of Interest Statement

I certify that there is no conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

 

Date, signature and full address of all authors.

 

Most read articles by the same author(s)