The Food Situations Questionnaire: a measure of children's willingness to try novel foods in stimulating and non-stimulating situations

This paper reports the development and validation of a self-report measure of food neophobia For children. Items described hypothetical situations in which novel foods might be encountered and asked children to report how the y would feel about tasting or. eating them. Ten items, representing two cor related subscales, were selected Gum among a larger number, using standard item selection measures with a total of 335 children, aged 7-12 years. The two subscales: represent willingness to try novel foods in highly stimulati ng circumstances and willingness to try novel foods in non-stimulating circ umstances. The test was shown to significantly predict actual willingness t o taste novel foods in a laboratory situation, ill addition, it was shown t o predict such willingness better than parents' reports of the children's n eophobia. Finally, the test was shown to have satisfactory interval and tes t-retest reliabilities. (C) 2000 Academic Press.