Cross-cultural adaptation of the intuitive eating scale-2: psychometric evaluation in a sample in Turkey

Abstract

Intuitive eating is the ability to eat in response to physiological hunger and satiety cues rather than to external or emotional cues. The purpose of this research was to adapt the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2; Tylka and Kroon Van Diest 2013) to Turkish in an adult sample. The factor structure of the IES-2 was evaluated in Study 1 (n = 264) with exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and in Study 2 (n = 271) with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Additionally, the correlations of the IES-2 scores with measures of self-esteem, disordered eating, obsessive thoughts, and body anxiety in social situations were assessed in Study 1 to evaluate the scale’s convergent validity. EFA results supported the four-factor structure of the original scale with the following factors: eating for physical rather than emotional reasons (EPR), unconditional permission to eat (UPE), reliance on hunger and satiety cues (RHSC), and body-food choice congruence (BFCC). Intercorrelations between the IES-2 total scores and other study constructs were in the expected direction, and ranged from medium to large. CFA results yielded acceptable fit values and supported the 4-factor model of the original scale. A second-order CFA showed that UPE had no association with the second-order latent variable, Intuitive Eating. The results suggest that the IES-2 is a valid and reliable measure of intuitive eating for the adult population in Turkey. Furthermore, it is recommended that Turkish IES-2 total scores be computed without the UPE items. The findings and clinical implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research in other cultural contexts are provided.