ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to develop and validate Eating Behaviors Test form (EBT) for infants and young children, including eating behaviors of their parents and parental feeding practices. METHODS: Draft version of EBT form was developed after a pretest on 83 mothers. It was consisted of 42 questions including 3 components; eating behavior of children, eating behavior of parents, and parental feeding practices. Using these questionnaires, the first survey was conducted on 320 infants and children, 1 to 6 year old, for exploratory factor analysis, and the second survey was collected on 731 infants and children for confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis on 42 questions of EBT form resulted in 3 factor model for children's eating behavior, 3 factor model for parents' eating behavior, and 1 factor model for parental feeding practices. Three factors for children's eating behavior could be explained as follows; factor 1, pickiness (reliability alpha=0.89; explanation of variance=27.79), factor 2, over activity (alpha=0.80, explanation of variance=16.51), and factor 3, irregularity (alpha=0.59, explanation of variance=10.01). Three factors for mother's eating behavior could be explained as follows; factor 1,irregularities (alpha=0.73, explanation of variance=21.73), factor 2, pickiness (alpha=0.65, explanation of variance= 20.16), and factor 3, permissiveness (alpha=0.60, explanation of variance=19.13). Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed an acceptance fit for these models. Internal consistencies for these factors were above 0.6. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that EBT form is a valid tool to measure comprehensive eating and feeding behaviors for infants and young children.