Adolescent Healthful Foods Inventory: Development of an Instrument to Assess Adolescents\u27 Willingness to Consume Healthful Foods

Interventions to increase adolescents\u27 healthful food and beverage consumption often fail to demonstrate change. An alternative is to measure a shift in willingness to consume these items as an indicator of movement toward change. A survey was developed to estimate willingness to consume a variety of foods and beverages. Twenty items were identified from five focus group interviews with adolescents. A survey of 234 youths indicated their willingness to consume each item. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in lists of high-fat/sugar-rich items and more healthful foods. Extension educators can use the survey instrument to demonstrate early positive participant change as they strive to deliver programs that meet mission mandates

Improved Knowledge and Adoption of Recommended Food Safety Practices by Food Recovery Agency Personnel and Volunteers Participating in the Serving Food Safely Program

The tri-state study reported here tested the effectiveness of a curriculum developed and presented in workshops by Extension and research faculty to increase knowledge and promote safe food handling practices of staff and volunteers of food recovery agencies providing rescued and surplus food to vulnerable populations. Results indicated that knowledge and adoption of recommended food safety practices increased for both staff and volunteers following participation in the workshops. The improvement in food safety knowledge and adoption of recommended food safety practices support the continued use of the food safety curriculum in the three states and possibly other areas in the United States

Exploratory and confirmatory factory analysis of the Willingness to Eat Whole Grains Questionnaire: A measure of young adults’ attitudes toward consuming whole grain foods

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Whole grains are recommended by dietary guidelines because of their health-promoting properties, yet attitudes toward consuming these foods have not been examined. This study developed and validated a questionnaire to estimate willingness to consume whole grain foods. Focus group interviews with high school students and input from nutrition educators produced a list of 10 whole grain items that were included in the “Willingness to Eat Whole Grains Questionnaire”. Young adult university students 18–29 years of age indicated their willingness to consume each of the whole grain foods using a 4-point, Likert-type scale with responses ranging from “always unwilling” to “always willing” and a fifth option of “never eaten”. Participants’ age, race/ethnicity, and gender were collected. Data were examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and test-retest reliability. The EFA test (n = 266; 65% female; 69% white) using principal axis factoring returned a single factor that included all survey items and explained 58.3% of the variance. The CFA (n = 252; 62% female, 74% white) supported a single-factor solution: χ2 = 80.57 (35); RMSEA = 0.07; Comparative Fit Index = 0.92; Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.90; and SRMR = 0.05. The questionnaire, administered on two occasions separated by two weeks to 36 university students, demonstrated good testretest reliability (r = 0.87, p \u3c 0.0001). The “Willingness to Eat Whole Grains Questionnaire” had good face validity when used with a young adult population and will be a useful tool to help nutrition educators examine attitudes toward consuming nutrient-rich whole grain foods

Adolescent healthful foods inventory: Development of an instrument to assess adolescents\u27 willingness to consume healthful foods

© 2016 Extension Journal Inc. Interventions to increase adolescents\u27 healthful food and beverage consumption often fail to demonstrate change. An alternative is to measure a shift in willingness to consume these items as an indicator of movement toward change. A survey was developed to estimate willingness to consume a variety of foods and beverages. Twenty items were identified from five focus group interviews with adolescents. A survey of 234 youths indicated their willingness to consume each item. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in lists of high-fat/sugar-rich items and more healthful foods. Extension educators can use the survey instrument to demonstrate early positive participant change as they strive to deliver programs that meet mission mandates

Physical Activity is Associated with Percent Body Fat and Body Composition but not BMI in White and Black College Students

The objective of this study was to examine the association of self-reported physical activity (PA) with body composition in 290 college students (49% male, 60% White) 18-25 years of age. Outcome measures included: self-reported PA levels calculated in MET-hrs·wk-1 from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ); body mass index (BMI; in kg·m-2); and body composition variables estimated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Mean activity levels of the sample were 39.8 ± 23.8 MET-hrs·wk-1. Participants were divided into quartiles of PA levels: ≥0 to \u3c24.0, ≥24.0 to \u3c34.0, ≥34.0 to \u3c51.25, and ≥51.25 MET-hrs·wk-1 and body composition variables were compared by group. Chi-square analyses revealed a significant difference for gender by PA quartile [χ2 (3, N=290) = 32.42, p \u3c 0.0001], and for gender by race by PA quartile [χ2 (9, N=290) = 37.82, p \u3c 0.0001]. MET-hrs·wk-1 was inversely correlated with %BF (r = -0.40, p \u3c 0.0001) but not BMI (r = 0.05, p = 0.43). When comparing body composition variables across PA quartiles, no significant differences were observed for BMI; however, subjects in the highest quartile of PA had a lower percent body fat (%BF) and fat mass (FM), and a higher lean-tissue mass (LTM) compared to subjects in the other three groups. In this cohort of young adults, participants in the highest activity group had a more fit body composition profile (e.g., lower %BF, lower FM, and higher LTM) which was not reflected in BMI and was independent of gender and race

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the Adolescent Motivation to Cook Questionnaire: A Self-Determination Theory instrument

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Increasing adolescents’ motivation and competence to cook may improve diet quality and reduce the risk for obesity and chronic diseases. The objective of this study was to develop an instrument to measure adolescents’ intrinsic motivation to prepare healthy foods and the four psychological needs that facilitate motivation identified by the Self Determination Theory (SDT). Five hundred ninety-three high school students (62.7% female) were recruited to complete the survey. Participants indicated to what extent they agreed or disagreed with 25 statements pertaining to intrinsic motivation and perceived competence to cook, and their perceived autonomy support, autonomy, and relatedness to teachers and classmates. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and internal consistency reliability. EFA returned a five-factor structure explaining 65.3% of the variance; and CFA revealed that the best model fit was a five-factor structure (χ2 = 524.97 (265); Comparative Fit Index = 0.93; RMSEA = 0.056; and SRMR = 0.04). The sub-scales showed good internal consistency (Intrinsic Motivation: α = 0.94; Perceived Competence: α = 0.92; Autonomy Support: α = 0.94; Relatedness: α = 0.90; and Autonomy: α = 0.85). These results support the application of the Adolescent Motivation to Cook Questionnaire to measure adolescents’ motivation and perceived competence to cook, autonomy support by their instructor, autonomy in the classroom, and relatedness to peers. Further studies are needed to investigate whether this instrument can measure change in cooking intervention programs

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

© 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\u27s use in a culinary classroom setting to reaffirm these findings. Future research includes testing the instrument\u27s 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

Adolescents' perceptions of their parents' and peers' opinions about their body weight

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the associations between adolescents' perceptions of their parents' and peers' opinions about body weight and their actual weight status. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 795 Jordanian adolescents, 15-18 years of age, were recruited in this study. Adolescents completed a questionnaire to evaluate their perceptions: about how their parents' and peers' viewed their weight, regarding any criticism of their parents and peers about their weight and if their parents compared their weight against their siblings. Findings: The study found that the majority of non-overweight adolescents thought their parents and peers considered them to have a normal weight (94.9 and 94.6 per cent for boys, 76.6 and 85.5 per cent for girls, respectively). For obese girls, 83.4 per cent thought their parents and 91.7 per cent thought their peers perceived them as overweight. The risk of being obese was significantly related to the amount of parental criticism perceived by adolescent girls with OR = 3.9 (95 per cent CI: 1.6-9.4; P = 0.01), while perception of peer criticism showed an increased trend of risk for obesity in boys. Adolescents' perceptions regarding parental comparisons between their body weights against their siblings' body weight was found to increase the risk for obesity significantly among girls. Originality/value: The current study highlights that most of the obese adolescents perceived that their parents and peers underestimated their actual weight status. While obese boys were more likely to report being criticized about their body shape by their peers, obese girls indicated that they received more criticism about their weight from their parents. 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.Scopu