Abstract
Objective
To develop and validate measures of parental social support to increase their child’s
fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption.
Design
Cross-sectional study design.
Setting
School and home.
Participants
Two hundred three parents with at least 1 elementary school-aged child.
Main Outcome Measure
Parents completed a questionnaire that included instrumental social support scale
(ISSPS), emotional social support scale (ESSPS), household FV availability and accessibility
index, and demographics.
Analysis
Exploratory factor analysis with promax rotation was conducted to obtain the psychometric
properties of ISSPS and ESSPS. Internal consistency and test-retest reliabilities
were also assessed.
Results
Factor analysis indicated a 4-factor model for ESSPS: positive encouragement, negative
role modeling, discouragement, and an item cluster called reinforcement. Psychometric
properties indicated that ISSPS performed best as independent single scales with α = .87. Internal consistency reliabilities were acceptable, and test-retest reliabilities
ranged from low to acceptable. Correlations between scales, subscales, and item clusters
were significant (P < .05). In addition, ISSPS and the positive encouragement subscale were significantly
correlated with household FV availability.
Conclusions and Implications
The ISSPS and ESSPS subscales demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and
are suitable for impact assessment of an intervention designed to target parents to
help their children eat more fruit and vegetables.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 09, 2012
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
