Design and validation of a scale of maternal attitudes towards childhood overweight and obesity

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to design, validate and obtain the reliability of the Maternal Attitudes Towards Overweight and Childhood Obesity Scale. The validation of this instrument was carried out in four stages: a) Study 1: Exploratory, with N= 95 mothers and grandmothers aged 20 to 46 years (Mage = 32.43, SD = 7.9) which used the semantic networks technique to inquire about the psychological meaning of overweight and obesity; b) Study 2: Content Validity, where 33 items were written and the content validity was obtained through five judges; c) Study 3: First Validation, which included 346 mothers aged 18 to 62 (Mage = 33.08, SD = 6.8) with preschool children; 11 items were obtained distributed in three factors denominated: negative attitude (α = .72), meaning (α = .63) and importance (α = .56), with α = .77 of the total scale and an explained variance of 54.50%; d) Study 4: Second Validation, in which 369 mothers and grandmothers (3 %) aged between17 and 63 years (Mage = 32.43, SD = 7.9) participated. The final scale was two-dimensional, composed of 11 items with an α =.85 and an explained variance of 46%, which evaluates the negative attitudes perceived towards obesity and its consequences.