Child-reported family and peer influences on fruit, juice and vegetable consumption: reliability and validity of measures

Family, peers and other environmental factors are likely to influence child ren's dietary behavior but few measures of these phenomena exist. Questionn aires to measure family and peer influences on children's fruit, juice and vegetable (FJV) consumption were developed and pilot tested with an ethnica lly diverse group of Grade 4-6 children. Principal components analyses reve aled subscales with acceptable internal consistencies that measured parent and peer FJV modeling, normative beliefs, normative expectations, perceived peer FJV norms, supportive and permissive parenting practices, food rules, permissive eating, and child food preparation. Internal consistencies were adequate to high, but test-re-test correlations often were low. Children a lso completed questionnaires on FJV availability and accessibility in the h ome, and food records for 2 days in the classroom. Parental modeling, peer normative beliefs and FV availability were significantly correlated with FJ V consumption. Further research with these scales Is warranted.