Calibration of the food parenting practice (FPP) item bank: Tools for improving the measurement of food parenting practices of parents of 5-12-year-old children

Authors: MASSE, LOUISE - University Of British Columbia; O'CONNOR, TERESIA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); LIN, YINGYI - University Of British Columbia; HUGHES, SHERYL - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); TUGAULT-LAFLEUR, CLAIRE - University Of British Columbia; BARANOWSKI, TOM - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); BEAUCHAMP, MARK - University Of British Columbia

Submitted to: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/2/2020
Publication Date: 11/16/2020
Citation: Masse, L.C., O'Connor, T.M., Lin, Y., Hughes, S.O., Tugault-Lafleur, C.N., Baranowski, T., Beauchamp, M.R. 2020. Calibration of the food parenting practice (FPP) item bank: Tools for improving the measurement of food parenting practices of parents of 5-12-year-old children. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 17:140. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-01049-9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-020-01049-9

Interpretive Summary: Parents are an important influence on their children's eating behaviors and dietary intake, through their parenting behaviors during food preparation, meals and snacks. This concept is called food parenting practices (FPP). There is no standardized or agreed upon method for how to measure FPP for observational or intervention studies. This makes it difficult to compare results across studies and ultimately to understand how parents influence their children's dietary intake. This study therefore builds on previous work by this team to build an item bank of FPP items and concepts informed by a systemic review of published instruments, along with parent and expert input. The purpose of this phase of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of the resulting FPP item bank of 17 FPP concepts and 129 items to demonstrate if the concepts are statistically sound and which items should be used to measure each FPP concept. A sample of 799 Canadian parents, with children 5-12 years old, were recruited from an internet research polling firm using quota sampling to get appropriate representation of parent sex, ethnicity, and income. Parents completed an online survey and classical test and item response theories were used to assess the statistical properties of the FPP items, concepts and overall framework based on the parent's responses. The analyses found that a previously published expert-informed FPP framework was mainly supported with some changes, resulting in a framework with 11 concepts (coercive control, restriction for weight, non-directive support, provide healthy eating opportunities, rules and limits, redirection, meal routines, cover control, accommodate the child, autonomy support, and child involvement) organized into three dimensions (control, structure, and autonomy promotion). The resulting 86 items can be used to reliably assess parent's use of PAPP across these 11 concepts. Additional computer adaptive testing analysis identified that some of the concepts could be assessed with even fewer items when needed, resulting a short version of FPP with only 48 items which can be used when greater efficiency is required.

Technical Abstract: There has been a call to improve measurement rigour and standardization of food parenting practices measures, as well as aligning the measurement of food parenting practices with the parenting literature. Drawing from an expert-informed conceptual framework assessing three key domains of food parenting practices (autonomy promotion, control, and structure), this study combined factor analytic methods with Item Response Modeling (IRM) methodology to psychometrically validate responses to the Food Parenting Practice item bank. A sample of 799 Canadian parents of 5-12-year-old children completed the Food Parenting Practice item bank (129 items measuring 17 constructs). The factorial structure of the responses to the item bank was assessed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), confirmatory bi-factor item analysis, and IRM. Following these analyses, differential Item Functioning (DIF) and Differential Response Functioning (DRF) analyses were then used to test invariance properties by parents' sex, income and ethnicity. Finally, the efficiency of the item bank was examined using computerized adaptive testing simulations to identify the items to include in a short form. Overall, the expert-informed conceptual framework was predominantly supported by the CFA as it retained the same 17 constructs included in the conceptual framework with the exception of the access/availability and permissive constructs which were respectively renamed covert control and accommodating the child to better reflect the content of the final solution. The bi-factor item analyses and IRM analyses revealed that the solution could be simplified to 11 unidimensional constructs and the full item bank included 86-items (empirical reliability from 0.78 to 0.96, except for 1 construct) and the short form had 48 items. Overall the food parenting practice item bank has excellent psychometric properties. The item bank includes an expanded version and short version to meet various study needs. This study provides more efficient tools for assessing how food parenting practices influence child dietary behaviours. Next steps are to use the IRM calibrated item bank and draw on computerized adaptive testing methodology to administer the item bank and provide flexibility in item selection.