Validating the children's eating behaviour questionnaire in a UK sample: A suitable tool for mothers and fathers

Mar Lozano-Casanova; Silvia Escribano; Abigail Pickard; Katie L Edwards; Alice R Kininmonth; Miguel Richart-Martinez; Isabel Sospedra; Claire Farrow; Jacqueline Blissett

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2025.108322

Validating the children's eating behaviour questionnaire in a UK sample: A suitable tool for mothers and fathers

Mar Lozano-Casanova
, Silvia Escribano^*
, Abigail Pickard
, Katie L Edwards
, Alice R Kininmonth
, Miguel Richart-Martinez
, Isabel Sospedra
, Claire Farrow
, Jacqueline Blissett

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Children's eating behaviour is a complex construct linked to various health, social, and psychological outcomes. The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ)assesses parents' perceptions of children's eating behaviours across eight subscales: food fussiness, enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, satiety responsiveness, desire to drink, slowness in eating, and emotional under- and overeating. Given that the initial validation of the CEBQ dates back to the early 2000s, this study aimed to (1) evaluate the psychometric properties of the CEBQ in a UK sample using current psychometric recommendations and (2) examine its measurement invariance based on parental sex. A total of 994 caregivers (196 fathers and 798 mothers) of children aged 3-5 years completed the questionnaire. The performance of the scale revealed that 23 items exhibited ceiling or floor effects or failed to meet recommended item-total correlation coefficients. Exploratory factor analysis supported an eight-factor, 34-item structure, which was confirmed via confirmatory factor analysis: X = 2129.845 (df = 499; p < 0.001), TLI = 0.911, CFI = 0.921, RMSEA = 0.083 (90 % CI 0.079-0.087) and SRMR = 0.080. All factors demonstrated adequate internal consistency (omega 3 values over 0.7). Measurement invariance testing confirmed strict invariance by parental sex, indicating the instrument performs equivalently for mothers and fathers. These findings support the use of the revised 34-item CEBQ with its eight original factors for both maternal and paternal respondents. However, future research should consider revising certain CEBQ items included to strengthen its capacity to capture variations in children's eating behaviour, and to provide a more accurate evaluation of the construct.

Original language	English
Article number	108322
Number of pages	9
Journal	Appetite
Volume	216
Early online date	23 Sept 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2025.108322
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2026

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This article is available under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license and permits non-commercial use of the work as published, without adaptation or alteration provided the work is fully attributed.

Data Access Statement

Appendix A. Supplementary data: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666325004751?via%3Dihub#sec10
Data will be made available at https://osf.io/r6789.

Funding

This research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant ref.: ES/v014153/1). The funding organisation had no role in the design of the study, collection, management, analysis and interpretation of data, and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. We would like to thank all the families for participating in the study and the wider APPETItE investigatory team for their support. This article is part of the compendium of publications from Mar Lozano-Casanova's doctoral thesis which is supervised by Miguel Richart-Martinez and Isabel Sospedra. Mar Lozano-Casanova received a grant from the Spanish Government (FPU21/04232).

Keywords

Children
Psychometric validation
Psychometrics
Sex invariance
Eating behaviours

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10.1016/j.appet.2025.108322Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Validating the children's eating behaviour questionnaire in a UK sample_VoR
Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/ ).
Final published version, 748 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Cite this

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title = "Validating the children's eating behaviour questionnaire in a UK sample: A suitable tool for mothers and fathers",

abstract = "Children's eating behaviour is a complex construct linked to various health, social, and psychological outcomes. The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ)assesses parents' perceptions of children's eating behaviours across eight subscales: food fussiness, enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, satiety responsiveness, desire to drink, slowness in eating, and emotional under- and overeating. Given that the initial validation of the CEBQ dates back to the early 2000s, this study aimed to (1) evaluate the psychometric properties of the CEBQ in a UK sample using current psychometric recommendations and (2) examine its measurement invariance based on parental sex. A total of 994 caregivers (196 fathers and 798 mothers) of children aged 3-5 years completed the questionnaire. The performance of the scale revealed that 23 items exhibited ceiling or floor effects or failed to meet recommended item-total correlation coefficients. Exploratory factor analysis supported an eight-factor, 34-item structure, which was confirmed via confirmatory factor analysis: X = 2129.845 (df = 499; p < 0.001), TLI = 0.911, CFI = 0.921, RMSEA = 0.083 (90 \% CI 0.079-0.087) and SRMR = 0.080. All factors demonstrated adequate internal consistency (omega 3 values over 0.7). Measurement invariance testing confirmed strict invariance by parental sex, indicating the instrument performs equivalently for mothers and fathers. These findings support the use of the revised 34-item CEBQ with its eight original factors for both maternal and paternal respondents. However, future research should consider revising certain CEBQ items included to strengthen its capacity to capture variations in children's eating behaviour, and to provide a more accurate evaluation of the construct.",

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AU - Lozano-Casanova, Mar

AU - Escribano, Silvia

AU - Pickard, Abigail

AU - Edwards, Katie L

AU - Kininmonth, Alice R

AU - Richart-Martinez, Miguel

AU - Sospedra, Isabel

AU - Farrow, Claire

AU - Blissett, Jacqueline

N1 - Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This article is available under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license and permits non-commercial use of the work as published, without adaptation or alteration provided the work is fully attributed.

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N2 - Children's eating behaviour is a complex construct linked to various health, social, and psychological outcomes. The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ)assesses parents' perceptions of children's eating behaviours across eight subscales: food fussiness, enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, satiety responsiveness, desire to drink, slowness in eating, and emotional under- and overeating. Given that the initial validation of the CEBQ dates back to the early 2000s, this study aimed to (1) evaluate the psychometric properties of the CEBQ in a UK sample using current psychometric recommendations and (2) examine its measurement invariance based on parental sex. A total of 994 caregivers (196 fathers and 798 mothers) of children aged 3-5 years completed the questionnaire. The performance of the scale revealed that 23 items exhibited ceiling or floor effects or failed to meet recommended item-total correlation coefficients. Exploratory factor analysis supported an eight-factor, 34-item structure, which was confirmed via confirmatory factor analysis: X = 2129.845 (df = 499; p < 0.001), TLI = 0.911, CFI = 0.921, RMSEA = 0.083 (90 % CI 0.079-0.087) and SRMR = 0.080. All factors demonstrated adequate internal consistency (omega 3 values over 0.7). Measurement invariance testing confirmed strict invariance by parental sex, indicating the instrument performs equivalently for mothers and fathers. These findings support the use of the revised 34-item CEBQ with its eight original factors for both maternal and paternal respondents. However, future research should consider revising certain CEBQ items included to strengthen its capacity to capture variations in children's eating behaviour, and to provide a more accurate evaluation of the construct.

AB - Children's eating behaviour is a complex construct linked to various health, social, and psychological outcomes. The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ)assesses parents' perceptions of children's eating behaviours across eight subscales: food fussiness, enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, satiety responsiveness, desire to drink, slowness in eating, and emotional under- and overeating. Given that the initial validation of the CEBQ dates back to the early 2000s, this study aimed to (1) evaluate the psychometric properties of the CEBQ in a UK sample using current psychometric recommendations and (2) examine its measurement invariance based on parental sex. A total of 994 caregivers (196 fathers and 798 mothers) of children aged 3-5 years completed the questionnaire. The performance of the scale revealed that 23 items exhibited ceiling or floor effects or failed to meet recommended item-total correlation coefficients. Exploratory factor analysis supported an eight-factor, 34-item structure, which was confirmed via confirmatory factor analysis: X = 2129.845 (df = 499; p < 0.001), TLI = 0.911, CFI = 0.921, RMSEA = 0.083 (90 % CI 0.079-0.087) and SRMR = 0.080. All factors demonstrated adequate internal consistency (omega 3 values over 0.7). Measurement invariance testing confirmed strict invariance by parental sex, indicating the instrument performs equivalently for mothers and fathers. These findings support the use of the revised 34-item CEBQ with its eight original factors for both maternal and paternal respondents. However, future research should consider revising certain CEBQ items included to strengthen its capacity to capture variations in children's eating behaviour, and to provide a more accurate evaluation of the construct.

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SN - 0195-6663

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JO - Appetite

JF - Appetite

M1 - 108322

ER -

Validating the children's eating behaviour questionnaire in a UK sample: A suitable tool for mothers and fathers

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Access Statement

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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