Abstract
BackgroundEvaluating whether parental challenges and self-efficacy toward managing children’s lifestyle behaviors are successfully addressed by interventions requires valid instruments. The Lifestyle Behavior Checklist (LBC) has recently been developed in the Australian context. It consists of two subscales: the Problem scale, which measures parental perceptions of children’s behavioral problems related to overweight and obesity, and the Confidence scale, measuring parental self-efficacy in dealing with these problems. The aim of the current study was to systematically translate the questionnaire into Dutch and to evaluate its internal consistency, construct validity and test-retest reliability.MethodsThe LBC was systematically translated by four experts at Maastricht University. In total, 392 parents of 3-to13-year-old children were invited to fill out two successive online questionnaires with a two-week interval. Of these, 273 parents responded to the first questionnaire (test, response rate = 69.6%), and of the 202 who could be invited for the second questionnaire (retest), 100 responded (response rate = 49.5%). We assessed the questionnaire’s internal consistency (Cronbach’s α), construct validity (Spearman’s Rho correlation tests, using the criterion measures: restrictiveness, nurturance, and psychological control), and test-retest reliability (Spearman’s Rho correlation tests).ResultsBoth scales had high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α ≥ 0.90). Spearman correlation coefficients indicated acceptable test-retest reliability for both the Problem scale (rs = 0.74) and the Confidence scale (rs = 0.70). The LBC Problem scale was significantly correlated to all criterion scales (nurturance, restrictiveness, psychological control) in the hypothesized direction, and the LBC Confidence scale was significantly correlated with nurturance and psychological control in the hypothesized direction, but not with restrictiveness.ConclusionsThe Dutch translation of the LBC was found to be a reliable and reasonably valid questionnaire to measure parental perceptions of children’s weight-related problem behavior and the extent to which parents feel confident to manage these problems.
Highlights
Evaluating whether parental challenges and self-efficacy toward managing children’s lifestyle behaviors are successfully addressed by interventions requires valid instruments
The construct validity of the Lifestyle Behavior Checklist (LBC) questionnaire was assessed by using general parenting measures as criterion measures; both scales were significantly correlated with the measures of general parenting, indicating that general parenting skills are to some extent reflected in parental self-efficacy in childhood overweight
We found significant correlations between the LBC Problem scale and all criterion scales
Summary
Evaluating whether parental challenges and self-efficacy toward managing children’s lifestyle behaviors are successfully addressed by interventions requires valid instruments. The Lifestyle Behavior Checklist (LBC) has recently been developed in the Australian context It consists of two subscales: the Problem scale, which measures parental perceptions of children’s behavioral problems related to overweight and obesity, and the Confidence scale, measuring parental self-efficacy in dealing with these problems. Two percent of the children were obese, which is four to six times the prevalence in 1980 In response to this increase, an increasing number of interventions have been developed with the aim of preventing or treating overweight and obesity in children. Evaluating the effects of parenting interventions on relevant intermediate outcome measures is necessary to get insight in working mechanisms of interventions For this purpose, validated instruments are required
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