Development, validity and reliability of a questionnaire to measure children's psychosocial factors related to healthy meal preparation

Aim Children's psychosocial factors related to healthy meal preparation are important for sustainable healthy dietary behaviour. At present, there is no valid and reliable tool to measure children's psychosocial factors related to healthy meal preparation. Hence, this study aimed to develop, validate and determine the reliability of a questionnaire designed to measure psychosocial factors related to healthy meal preparation among Malaysian children. Subjects and methods This cross-sectional study included 250 children aged 9-11 years. The questionnaire developed was tested for face and content validity. Item analysis was conducted for the knowledge domain. Construct validity of attitude, practice and self-efficacy domains was assessed using exploratory factor analysis with principle axis factoring extraction and direct oblimin rotation. Cronbach's alpha coefficient and Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 assessed internal consistency. The intraclass correlation coefficient determined test-retest reliability. Results All experts rated the questionnaire with a > 0.75 validity index. The knowledge domain had the optimal level of difficulty and could discriminate children with top and lower scores. Three-factor solutions emerged for the attitude domain and two-factor solutions emerged for the practice and self-efficacy domains, with appropriate factor loadings (> 0.40). Internal consistency ranged from 0.63-0.75 for the respective domains and an overall internal consistency of 0.82 for the whole questionnaire. Intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.85-0.89 for the respective domains. Conclusion Outcomes demonstrated that the questionnaire is a reliable and valid evaluation tool and can be adapted by countries to use in hands-on healthy meal preparation interventions to advocate healthy dietary behaviours among children.