Abstract
Objective: The Food Craving Questionnaire-Trait (FCQ-T) is commonly used to assess habitual food cravings among individuals. Previous studies have shown that a brief version of this instrument (FCQ-T-r) has good reliability and validity. This article is the first to use Confirmatory factor analysis to examine the psychometric properties of the FCQ-T-r in a cross-validation study.Method: Habitual food cravings, as well as emotion regulation strategies, affective states, and disordered eating behaviors, were investigated in two independent samples of non-clinical adult volunteers (Sample 1: N = 368; Sample 2: N = 246). Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to simultaneously test model fit statistics and dimensionality of the instrument. FCQ-T-r reliability was assessed by computing the composite reliability coefficient.Results: Analysis supported the unidimensional structure of the scale and fit indices were acceptable for both samples. The FCQ-T-r showed excellent reliability and moderate to high correlations with negative affect and disordered eating.Conclusion: Our results indicate that the FCQ-T-r scores can be reliably used to assess habitual cravings in an Italian non-clinical sample of adults. The robustness of these results is tested by a cross-validation of the model using two independent samples. Further research is required to expand on these findings, particularly in children and adolescents.
Highlights
Craving for food has received relevant attention among scholars in the last few years
What seems specific of food craving is the conflict or ambivalence shown toward the desired food in the food craving experience (Rogers and Smit, 2000)
The results of this study suggested that FCQ-T-r has a one-factor structure and high internal consistency
Summary
Craving for food has received relevant attention among scholars in the last few years. Food craving has been traditionally defined as a strong or intense desire to eat and, more recently, as an intense desire to eat a particular food that is difficult to resist (Rogers and Smit, 2000; White et al, 2002). Cross-validation of the FCQ-T-r of desire and specificity toward a particular food seem to be the core components of food craving (Hill, 2007). What seems specific of food craving is the conflict or ambivalence shown toward the desired food in the food craving experience (Rogers and Smit, 2000). 9), “attempting to resist the desire to eat chocolate only causes this desire to become more prominent (salient), and in turn, the experience is labeled as craving, rather than say hunger.” As stated by Rogers and Smit (2000, p. 9), “attempting to resist the desire to eat chocolate only causes this desire to become more prominent (salient), and in turn, the experience is labeled as craving, rather than say hunger.”
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