Abstract

To develop and validate a shortened form of the Children's Power of Food Scale (C-PFS), which measures anticipated reward from consuming highly palatable foods (i.e., hedonic hunger). Presently, two gaps exist with the C-PFS: the need for a shorter tighter measure, and evidence to support similar item function across populations.Ninth grade students (N?=?3,277; 14.1?±?0.4 years; 53.5% Female; 47% Hispanic) from 10 Los Angeles high schools completed the C-PFS and other surveys in class. Factor analysis, graded response modeling, and differential item functioning explored the structure of the 15?C-PFS items and identified a reduced set that parsimoniously taps hedonic hunger across the latent continuum and exhibits item-level invariance across sex, race/ethnicity, and weight status. Convergent validity was examined via associations of self-reported dietary intake, impulsivity, and body mass index (BMI) to C-PFS scores.Factor analytic models supported a single, primary dimension of hedonic hunger that accounted for 61% of the variance across all 15-items (a?=?0.94). Adequate severity, discriminatory ability, and non-overlapping item-difficulty were observed for 11-items, of which 9-items were found to have item-level invariance across demographic and weight status groupings. Poor performing items were removed to create a 9-item scale (C-PFS-9; a?=?0.93). Convergent validity was demonstrated as higher C-PFS-9 scores were significantly related to greater sweet (ß?=?0.32, [95%CI?=?0.23, 0.41], p?

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.appet.2019.104549

View details for PubMedID 31809813