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A NEW MEASURE OF PARENTAL SELF-EFFICACY FOR ENACTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES IN THEIR CHILDREN

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Date Issued:
2010
Abstract/Description:
The issue of childhood obesity has become a pandemic of increasing prevalence and concern. Many behaviors contributing to overweight and obesity, such as dietary intake and physical activity, are learned in childhood. It is known that parents are key agents for change in their children. Therefore, interventions aimed at decreasing childhood overweight and obesity should be targeted at parents. Many parents state that they know the healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors they should adopt for their children, but lack the confidence, or self-efficacy, to enact these behaviors. A review of the literature for self-efficacy for behaviors in these domains in parents, adults and children uncovered many key elements involved. A search for an instrument to measure parental self-efficacy was unsuccessful in locating such an instrument, so several instruments in related domains were analyzed for content and utility for the generation of a new questionnaire. A 34-item questionnaire to measure parental self-efficacy for enacting healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors in their children 6-11 years old was developed and tested with a sample of 146 parents of children 6-11 years old, who could read and write English and had access to a computer with the internet. Internal reliability of the total scale was 0.94 and the two factors, dietary behaviors (DB) and physical activity behaviors (PAB) were 0.93 and 0.94, respectively. Test-retest reliability was also significant (p<0.05) for individual item responses and total and subscale scores in 25 participants after 5-10 days. Factor analysis resulted in two interpretable factors (DB and PAB) which accounted for 25.3% and 16.8% of the variance, respectively. All items correlated more strongly with items on their respective subscales. Concurrent validity with theoretically similar scales was also demonstrated. This new measure was reliable and valid in this sample of parents of children 6-11 years old. Future use and further evaluation of this new measure is warranted.
Title: A NEW MEASURE OF PARENTAL SELF-EFFICACY FOR ENACTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES IN THEIR CHILDREN.
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Name(s): Decker, Jonathan, Author
Dennis, Karen, Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2010
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: The issue of childhood obesity has become a pandemic of increasing prevalence and concern. Many behaviors contributing to overweight and obesity, such as dietary intake and physical activity, are learned in childhood. It is known that parents are key agents for change in their children. Therefore, interventions aimed at decreasing childhood overweight and obesity should be targeted at parents. Many parents state that they know the healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors they should adopt for their children, but lack the confidence, or self-efficacy, to enact these behaviors. A review of the literature for self-efficacy for behaviors in these domains in parents, adults and children uncovered many key elements involved. A search for an instrument to measure parental self-efficacy was unsuccessful in locating such an instrument, so several instruments in related domains were analyzed for content and utility for the generation of a new questionnaire. A 34-item questionnaire to measure parental self-efficacy for enacting healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors in their children 6-11 years old was developed and tested with a sample of 146 parents of children 6-11 years old, who could read and write English and had access to a computer with the internet. Internal reliability of the total scale was 0.94 and the two factors, dietary behaviors (DB) and physical activity behaviors (PAB) were 0.93 and 0.94, respectively. Test-retest reliability was also significant (p<0.05) for individual item responses and total and subscale scores in 25 participants after 5-10 days. Factor analysis resulted in two interpretable factors (DB and PAB) which accounted for 25.3% and 16.8% of the variance, respectively. All items correlated more strongly with items on their respective subscales. Concurrent validity with theoretically similar scales was also demonstrated. This new measure was reliable and valid in this sample of parents of children 6-11 years old. Future use and further evaluation of this new measure is warranted.
Identifier: CFE0002983 (IID), ucf:47942 (fedora)
Note(s): 2010-05-01
Ph.D.
Other, School of Nursing
Doctorate
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): self-efficacy
parent
child
instrument development
healthy lifestyle
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002983
Restrictions on Access: public
Host Institution: UCF

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