Development and Preliminary Validation of the PC-FCQ: The Parent and Carer Food Choice Questionnaire
2025
Alex McKenna | Rachael L. Thurecht | Libby Swanepoel | Georgia Blair | Fiona E. Pelly
Background: Poor nutrition in childhood can have irreversible impacts on development and health, potentially resulting in cognitive impairments and an increased risk of chronic disease later in life. Aim: This study aimed to develop and validate the Parent Carer-Food Choice Questionnaire (PC-FCQ) to determine the key factors influencing the parental food choices of children aged between two and five years. Methods: A sample of 737 Australian parents and carers completed the questionnaire consisting of 98 items on a 10-point frequency of influence anchored at 1 never to 10 always. Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to identify the key factors and refine the questionnaire. Results: The PCA extracted 65 items organized into 12 factors explaining 62.8% of the total variance. The factors were named ethical concerns, nutritional attributes, child preferences, child mood, awareness, parent sensory, convenience, situation, culture, professional advice, accessibility and weight control. The final Kaiser&ndash:Meyer&ndash:Olkin measure was 0.93, and the Bartlett test of sphericity was statistically significant X2(4753) = 39,643.87, p <: 0.001. Moderate intercorrelations were detected between seven factors. Conclusions: This research resulted in a PC-FCQ that includes factors specifically relevant to parental food choice. The PC-FCQ will enable researchers and clinicians to more effectively provide nutrition education and dietary interventions to suit the parent and child. The next phase of this research will be to test the accuracy and reliability of the PC-FCQ in an independent sample via confirmatory factor analysis.
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