Validation of a parent-report version of the Emotional Eating Scale Adapted for Children and Adolescents Short-Form in American mothers

Abstract

Emotional eating is associated with negative outcomes in children, including elevated weight status and disordered eating. The current study assessed the preliminary psychometric properties of a 10-item parent-report version of the Emotional Eating Scale Adapted for Children (EES-C) Short-Form. Participants were 324 mothers of children ages 5–12 years. The parent-report version of the EES-C Short-Form and the Child Feeding Questionnaire were administered to mothers in the United States online. Cronbach’s alpha for the parent-report version of the EES-C-Short-Form was in the excellent range (α = .94). Mothers reported significantly higher levels of emotional eating in overweight/obese children than healthy weight children eating (effect size = 0.45, p < .001). Maternal reports of their child’s emotional eating on the EES-C-Short-Form were associated with maternal concern about their child’s weight (r = .285; 95% confidence interval = .18–.39), restricted eating (r = .238; 95% confidence interval = .13–.35), and monitoring of their child’s food intake (r = .136; 95% confidence interval = .02–.25) on the Child Feeding Questionnaire, supporting convergent validity. A unidimensional model produced a good fit (χ ² (35) = 70.31, p = 0.00, CFI = .999, SRMR = .036). Taken as a whole, this study provides preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the parent version of the EES-C Short-Form.